2012-13 Season

A wondrous variety
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A wondrous variety

The 2013 Good Friday concert at St. Paul’s Basilica featured the Mendelssohn Singers, the 70-voice choir formed in 2003 from the ranks of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. As in previous Good Friday concerts, music from various eras was sung (in this case from the 16th to the 21st centuries) and once again the choir used various spaces within the church to wonderful effect.

St. Paul's Basilica ceiling
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Sacred Music for a Sacred Space 2013 Program Notes

Except for a couple of years at the Dresden Court, Antonio Lotti (c.1647-1740) spent his career in Venice, working his way up from singer to organist to maestro di cappella at St. Mark’s Basilica. Lotti was an innovative composer of almost thirty operas, but in his sacred music he tended to rely on the great traditions of Renaissance polyphony. J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel and Felix Mendelssohn all knew and admired his music. Today he is known almost exclusively for his many settings of the Crucifixus text from the Credo of the mass. Why he wrote so many has remained a mystery but it may have been for insertion into mass settings by other composers.

Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle Program Notes
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Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle Program Notes

During the decades of the early 19th century, Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) dominated the world of Italian opera in both the comic and serious categories. The Barber of Seville, Tancredi, Semiramide, Cinderella, The Italian Girl in Algiers, The Silken Ladder, The Thieving Magpie and William Tell are all still staged today.

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TSO & Toronto Mendelssohn Choir: Concert review

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s gift to the city this season is a wonderfully shaped, gorgeously glowing performance of George Frideric Handel’s 1742 oratorio Messiah.

With the help of four excellent soloists and an expertly prepared Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, visiting conductor — and Handel specialist — Nicholas McGegan brought an easy bounce and infectious sense of enthusiasm to this Christmastime favourite at Roy Thomson Hall on Tuesday night.

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Hallelujah, it’s the Messiah: Choristers love to sing Handel’s oratorio

George Frideric Handel’s 1742 composition, the story of the prophecy, birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ, is a Christmas staple around the world and a steadfast Toronto tradition. Originally written as Easter music, it is performed here at this time of year by many choirs including Tafelmusik, Amadeus Choir, Elmer Iseler Singers, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and many church groups.

The 150-voice Mendelssohn Choir sings a five-concert series of the Messiah with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall beginning Tuesday, Dec. 18.