Pageant 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 Avenue, 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 real exception was in 2020 and 2021 when the in-person occasion was cancelled because of the pandemic. It resumed final 12 months and let’s hope the custom will proceed uninterrupted sooner or later.
It’s an occasion that I stay up for each December. I used to be there final night on a media task, however actually, how does one assessment a carol singing occasion anyway? I made a decision to only cling up my critic’s hat, overlook 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 principle sanctuary and the galleries. The turnout final night, whereas not fully full, was gratifyingly massive. Given the gradual operating subway within the downtown core lately, 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 modern works, together with a TMC-commissioned world premiere. As church acoustics goes, the Yorkminster Park is fantastic. 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 Evening” 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 quick for opera followers like yours actually, who’re accustomed to multiple-hour operatic marathons. Effectively, much more purpose to savour each second!
This 12 months’s world premiere/TMC Fee was Aaron Manswell’s “Good Information,” a chunk that “fuses Bach’s ‘Jesu, Pleasure of Man’s Wanting’ along with his compositional influences from Gospel and R&B.” It proved to be a good looking and completely accessible work that I hope to listen to once more. Kudos to organist Jonathan Oldengarm, who contributed significantly 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 dwelling joyful. If you can also make it, do attend the second efficiency this night. If not, hopefully the efficiency can be uploaded to TMC’s YouTube channel as in earlier years right here.
On that word, I want all Ludwig van Toronto readers a Merry Christmas and a Completely happy 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 Huge COC Podcast.He has co-edited a guide, Opera in a Multicultural World: Coloniality, Tradition, Efficiency, revealed by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group).