2015-16 Season Archives - Toronto Mendelssohn Choir https://www.tmchoir.org/category/2015-16-season/ Canada’s Choir for 130 Years Wed, 02 Jun 2021 19:42:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 ELORA FESTIVAL opens with a celebration of life, love and redemption! https://www.tmchoir.org/elora-festival-opens-with-a-celebration-of-life-love-and-redemption/ Sat, 09 Jul 2016 14:36:04 +0000 https://www.tmchoir.org/?p=2267 David Richards, Toronto Concert Reviews. Last night, the Opening Night Gala (of the Elora Festival) brought together the widely acclaimed Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Elora Festival Singers, the Elora Festival Orchestra and four superb soloists in two magnificent and large choral orchestral works. The performance took place on the outskirts of the historic village in a mammoth storage barn transformed into a cathedral-like concert hall. The program opened with moving multi-verse arrangements of ‘God Save the Queen’ and ‘O Canada’. The audience felt goosebumps from the glorious choral-orchestral sound that gave a hint of the very special evening that was about to unfold.

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]]> Conductor And Soloist Try The Soft Sell With The TSO https://www.tmchoir.org/conductor-and-soloist-try-the-soft-sell-with-the-tso/ Mon, 06 Jun 2016 14:00:19 +0000 https://www.tmchoir.org/?p=2238 Arthur Kaptainis, Musical Toronto. Expectation and fulfillment: We get a bit of each every day, and giant helpings whenever an orchestra like the Toronto Symphony programs Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé as a complete ballet. This score is languorous and lavish in equal measure, and if the first of two performances in Roy Thomson Hall under the baton of Juanjo Mena was a little heavy on the languor, the emphatic moments had their properly fulfilling effect.

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]]> T.O. concert for Queen’s 90th was indeed Happy and Glorious https://www.tmchoir.org/t-o-concert-for-queens-90th-was-indeed-happy-and-glorious/ Tue, 17 May 2016 14:55:19 +0000 https://www.tmchoir.org/?p=2214 Martin Knelman, Toronto Star. It was a highly enjoyable celebration of the Queen’s 90th birthday with a distinctively Canadian twist. And it should have been on national TV in prime time so millions could have joined the party.... From an Ontario perspective, the most stirring mix of provincial pride and nostalgia came when the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir sang “A Place to Stand,” which became an anthem for the Ontario Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, which the Queen visited.

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]]> An experience of sonic excellence: New Ears respond to The Creation https://www.tmchoir.org/an-experience-of-sonic-excellence-new-ears-respond-to-the-creation/ Tue, 03 May 2016 14:22:59 +0000 https://www.tmchoir.org/?p=2192 At one point I began to imagine myself seated in the hull of Noah’s Ark instead of Koerner Hall with its beautiful wood-paneled balconies and ceiling and how I was being prepared for a world of such beauty and diversity, listening to the music. Haydn’s Creation was an experience of sonic excellence combining vocal soloists, choir and orchestra and at the same time a good opportunity to reflect on the natural beauty we’ve been afforded and should not take for granted.

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]]> Choral Splendor Marks TMC’s The Creation at Koerner Hall https://www.tmchoir.org/choral-splendor-marks-tmcs-the-creation-at-koerner-hall/ Sat, 30 Apr 2016 23:57:30 +0000 https://www.tmchoir.org/?p=2191 Joseph So, Musical Toronto. One of the cornerstones of the oratorio repertoire, Haydn’s The Creation (Die Schöpfung) is a wonderful work that I never get tired of hearing. Together with Die Jahreszeiten, it’s two pieces on my short list of go-to oratorios if I ever want a “spiritual uplift.” So it was great to hear it again the other evening at Koerner Hall.

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]]> Toronto Mendelssohn Choir spectacular in Haydn’s Creation https://www.tmchoir.org/toronto-mendelssohn-choir-spectacular-in-haydns-creation/ Fri, 29 Apr 2016 21:55:36 +0000 https://www.tmchoir.org/?p=2190 David Richards, Ontario Arts Review. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir created an evening of spectacular bliss. Noel Edison successfully highlighted the drama and humour in the work with uplifting results. He created a symphonic sound of magnificent proportions with the 135 voice choir and the Festival Orchestra.

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]]> The Creation Program Notes https://www.tmchoir.org/the-creation-program-notes/ Wed, 06 Apr 2016 16:05:53 +0000 https://www.tmchoir.org/?p=2158 The opening orchestral introduction, called “The Representation of Chaos” is famous. Haydn paints the dark, frightening void just prior to creation by using snippets of melody, vague rhythms, strange harmonies, awkward dissonances and sudden outbursts. “There is nothing else quite like it,” claims Noel Edison. “It’s the Big Bang expressed in music, and was way ahead of its time!”

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]]> Transported: New Ears Respond to Sacred Music in a Sacred Space https://www.tmchoir.org/transported-new-ears-respond-to-sacred-music-in-a-sacred-space/ Wed, 30 Mar 2016 21:58:40 +0000 https://www.tmchoir.org/?p=2108 As a first time choral concert-goer, I truly did not know what to expect walking into St. Paul's Basilica that Wednesday evening. I was immediately taken aback by the beauty of the church, however it was soon taking second seat to the beautiful music of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.

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]]> Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Soars! https://www.tmchoir.org/toronto-mendelssohn-choir-soars/ Sat, 26 Mar 2016 19:57:36 +0000 https://www.tmchoir.org/?p=2105 David Richards, Ontario Arts Review.

Good Friday at St. Paul’s Catholic Church was the perfect day and place for a concert by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. The choir made wonderful use of the church’s magnificent acoustics, not to mention the elaborately decorated sanctuary. The concert of sacred music in such beautiful surroundings, on this special day, made the spirits soar. If Good Friday was meant to send a message of peace, hope and love to mankind, then the Mendelssohn Choir was an inspirational messenger.

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]]> Composer’s Commentary on I will lift up mine eyes https://www.tmchoir.org/composers-commentary-on-i-will-lift-up-mine-eyes/ Thu, 03 Mar 2016 17:15:03 +0000 https://www.tmchoir.org/?p=2043 Leonard Enns writes of his TMC commission, I will lift up mine eyes: Psalm 121 is typically read, and often set musically, as a text of assurance and comfort. My setting is similar in that regard. What I find compelling, though, is the second phrase of the psalm: "from whence commeth my help (?)." Many musical settings treat the phrase "from whence cometh my help" simply as a modifier (no question mark); i.e. "... the hills from whence cometh my help" (take, for example, Mendelssohn's "Lift thine eyes"). Most current translations, however, treat it as a question.

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