Competition of Carols/ Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Jean-Sébastien Vallée, conductor; Jonathan Oldengarm, organ; Irene Gregorio, piano. Dec. 3 & 4, 2024 7:30 p.m. Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, 1585 Yonge Road, Toronto. Repeats Dec 4; tickets right here.
For the final 25 years, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir has been bringing the enjoyment of communal Carol Sing to its Toronto viewers. The only exception was in 2020 and 2021 when the in-person occasion was cancelled because of the pandemic. It resumed final yr and let’s hope the custom will proceed uninterrupted sooner or later.
It’s an occasion that I look ahead to each December. I used to be there final night on a media task, however in fact, how does one evaluation a carol singing occasion anyway? I made a decision to simply hold up my critic’s hat, neglect about taking notes, and simply be an viewers member, partaking within the joyous event.
It was the primary of two performances on the Yorkminster Park Baptist Church. It’s an enormous venue, with a seating capability of over 1,200 in the primary sanctuary and the galleries. The turnout final night, whereas not fully full, was gratifyingly massive. Given the sluggish operating subway within the downtown core as of late, I made a decision to get there 45 minutes early. There have been already plenty of folks jammed into the vestibule, ready to be let in.
The live performance was led by the esteemed TMC choral conductor Jean-Sébastien Vallée, in a six part, 90-minute program of age-old chestnuts and up to date works, together with a TMC-commissioned world premiere. As church acoustics goes, the Yorkminster Park is great. When the sound comes from a world-class ensemble that’s the TMC, it’s actually thrilling. There have been moments final night after I felt the sound within the depth of my being.
As TMC resident musicologist Rena Roussin writes in her program notes, the night combines conventional items the likes of “Silent Night time” and “Pleasure to the World” with seven lately composed works, plus “Worthy is the Lamb” from Handel’s Messiah, for a complete of 16 items. It lasted 90 minutes, a tad brief for opera followers like yours actually, who’re accustomed to multiple-hour operatic marathons. Effectively, much more purpose to savour each second!
This yr’s world premiere/TMC Fee was Aaron Manswell’s “Good Information,” a bit that “fuses Bach’s ‘Jesu, Pleasure of Man’s Needing’ together with his compositional influences from Gospel and R&B.” It proved to be an exquisite and completely accessible work that I hope to listen to once more. Kudos to organist Jonathan Oldengarm, who contributed tremendously to the sonic journey.
The night ended joyously with an encore! And what higher encore than the thrilling rendition of the Hallelujah Refrain from Messiah? I dare say everybody went residence completely happy. If you can also make it, do attend the second efficiency this night. If not, hopefully the efficiency might be uploaded to TMC’s YouTube channel as in earlier years right here.
On that observe, I want all Ludwig van Toronto readers a Merry Christmas and a Pleased and Wholesome 2025.
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Joseph So is Professor Emeritus at Trent College and Affiliate Editor of Opera Canada.He’s additionally a long-time contributor to La Scena Musicale and Opera (London, UK). His curiosity in music journalism focuses on voice, opera in addition to symphonic and piano repertoires. He seems commonly as a panel member of the Massive COC Podcast.He has co-edited a e-book, Opera in a Multicultural World: Coloniality, Tradition, Efficiency, revealed by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group).
