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 as a result of pandemic. It resumed final 12 months and let’s hope the custom will proceed uninterrupted sooner or later.
It’s an occasion that I sit up for each December. I used to be there final night on a media task, however in fact, how does one evaluate a carol singing occasion anyway? I made a decision to simply hold 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 primary sanctuary and the galleries. The turnout final night, whereas not fully full, was gratifyingly giant. Given the sluggish working subway within the downtown core today, I made a decision to get there 45 minutes early. There have been already numerous individuals 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 really thrilling. There have been moments final night once 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 not too long ago 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 really, who’re accustomed to multiple-hour operatic marathons. Properly, 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 gorgeous and completely accessible work that I hope to listen to once more. Kudos to organist Jonathan Oldengarm, who contributed drastically 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 house completely satisfied. If you may 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 notice, 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 e-book, Opera in a Multicultural World: Coloniality, Tradition, Efficiency, revealed by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group).