Amadeus Choir, December 16
Rating: VVVV
Nothing says Christmas like the sound of a children’s choir, and one of Toronto’s best young ensembles took part in a holiday tradition at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church on December 16. The Bach Children’s Chorus, under the guidance of the more seasoned Amadeus Choir, presented their annual holiday concert, a 19-year-old winter tradition at Yonge and St. Clair.
Amadeus conductor Lydia Adams described this concert as “a celebration of creation,” a fitting title for a night that featured so many new compositions from young people. Every year, the Amadeus Choir sponsors a carol-writing contest in which composers aged 7 to 20 submit Hanukkah and Christmas carols to be judged by a panel of experienced conductors and musicians. Each batch of submissions produces a new crop of imaginative carols that are premiered at the annual holiday concert, with all the composers in attendance.
The booming organ played by U of T-trained Matthew Larkin easily drowned out the faint rumble of the nearby subway, as the capacity crowd enjoyed an eclectic mix of holiday treats. The Bach Children’s Chorus showed decent dynamic range and lots of promise in spirited renditions of classic carols and more contemporary pieces.
The Amadeus Choir displayed the considerable skill that makes them such good role models for their young colleagues, showing great musical sensitivity in their solo pieces. Their polished performances of popular holiday songs “When Christ Was Born of Mary Free” and “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day” were quite impressive for their warmth and energy.
The highlight of the concert was the premiere of seven impressive, concert-ready carols written by the young composers, with some help with the arrangements from the prolific Canadian choral composer, Eleanor Daly.
Of particular note among the winning carols were Joseph Osborne’s “Hodie Christus Natus Est,” with its ethereal harmonies, and the fun Caribbean rhythms in “Out of the Silence, Music,” by the sister team of Emily and Annie Bird, 14 and 11, respectively. It was quite a thrill for these future composers to hear their tunes turned into full-fledged choral works, sung to a full house.
This year was particularly special for composer Laura Silberberg, a U of T composition undergrad at the Faculty of Music who has won or received honourable mention in the Amadeus contest for ten years running. Her latest work, “The Laws of Chanukkah,” will be the 20-year-old’s last entry in the competition that she says has done wonderful things for her burgeoning music career.
“I’ve been composing since I was very young,” said Silberberg during intermission. “At first, I did everything by ear.”
She first submitted to the carol contest as “a chance to compose,” and her success offered her a glimpse as to her future academic path.
“My composition skills have improved tremendously since attending U of T,” said Silberberg. “I’ve learned so much from Christos Hatzis.” Studying composition under famed composer Hatzis, Silberberg regularly works on larger, more complex pieces, but she acknowledges that compositions for the carol competition must be “short and choir-friendly.”
So what’s it like to hear your works performed on stage? “It’s exciting-you don’t know what to expect. But the choir did a great job with it,” she said with a smile.
Silberberg’s carol celebrated Hanukkah, appropriate since the concert was held on the second night of the festival. Her composition had rich harmonic texture and several moments of musical transcendence, revealing plenty of promise in this emerging talent.
The always-interesting R. Vaughan Williams added a stellar work to the lineup, an eerie “Fantasia on Christmas Carols” in which Nelson Lohnes’ dramatic baritone solo and Larkin’s murky organ prelude evoked a gloomy night in Dickensian England. But there was no Scrooge here: out of the mysterious gloom, the choir’s upraised voices declared, “We wish you comfort and tidings of joy” in a re-imagined “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen.”
A spirited Hanukkah song, “Round and Round the Dreydl Spins,” got audiences clapping, and the combined choirs performed selections from Canadian composer Barrie Cabena’s Gloria Tibi Domine before one last sing-along ended the night.
After such a varied celebration of Christmas and Hanukkah, the entire audience-and any church mice who happened to be listening-left with lovely holiday sounds in their ears.
The Hannaford Street Silver Band, December 18
Rating: 3.5/5
Before the Hannaford Street Silver Band took to the stage on the evening of December 18 at St. James Cathedral, the raucous pealing of the bells in the cathedral carillon provided a natural prelude to the concert. The sound summoning music lovers to the concert reverberated down King Street as passersby plodded on through the foggy night. It could have been a scene straight out of A Christmas Carol, if not for the Lincolns whizzing by.
The bells did their job though, as over 800 people filled the domed cathedral to hear this prolific brass ensemble perform Christmas favourites, with a little help from the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus.
A bit of inspired staging created a superb opener, as the band split itself in two groups and played from opposite ends of the church, midway down the aisle. Maestro Richard Bradshaw, stationed in the middle of the central aisle, subtly teased out a wonderful stereo effect that brought the brass to life. Dividing the group in half added to the dynamic possibilities of the performance, as the warm, brassy strains echoed through the majestic cathedral. The surprise value of having a trumpet solo erupt behind an unsuspecting audience member was also not to be underestimated.
The band, led by the euphonium of artistic director (and U of T Music prof) Curtis Metcalfe, was fantastic, and the opener, Sonata Pian’e forte from Sacrae Symphoniae by the prolific brass composer Giovanni Gabrieli, was wonderfully sublime. Unfortunately, the concert didn’t continue along that vein. There were too many other acts, including some bombastic yet bland carol sing-alongs and several confusing and scattered vocal selections, which took the focus off the best ensemble there: the band.
The chorus’ solo pieces were (perhaps unavoidably) the most underwhelming part of the performance, as they had to contend with the grandeur of the brass ensemble. Yet despite being given several promising songs to work with, including Canadian composer Eleanor Daly’s “Canticle to the Spirit,” there was little dramatic excitement or dynamic range in the performance. The choristers were certainly expressive and emotionally present to the text, but conductor Ann Cooper Gay wasn’t able to capitalize on their energy to create an engaging musical whole.
Michael Bloss’ organ solo (on a piece by Messiaen) was epic-length and just as muddled. Bloss’ start-and-stop technique and the incessant repetition created the impression that one was wandering through a sinister funhouse with nothing interesting to do.
Errol Gay’s “A Dickens of a Christmas” was a playful romp through the Scrooge story that saw the Hannaford Band and the young choristers join forces for a fun, memorable number. The singers were very expressive and carried off the performance with lots of expression.
To continue this loot bag of a programme, John Burge somehow managed to turn the introduction to his arrangement of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” into the incidental music for a James Bond movie, but the choir’s timely entrance helped guide the audience through. The Hannaford crew added a majestic flourish behind a somewhat bland (and largely melodic) choral part, yet throughout the piece, the brass, choir, and organ never quite gelled. It was a solid piece that could have been spectacular.
Then everyone, audience included, joined together for a ‘Messiah lite’ version of the “Hallelujah Chorus,” a fun substitute if you missed the TSO’s performance. But it would have been preferable to have heard the band and choir perform this difficult piece themselves, rather than have the audience muddle through it, since the brass ended up overpowering the choir and therefore drowning the melody.
On the whole, this unbalanced concert had moments of rapture separated by longer periods of tedium. The choir seemed to have needed further rehearsal, though the children gave it their all, and the sound system could not prevent the brass from overpowering the voices.
The night’s best moments were the too-few instances when the brass band could perform alone, such as the two truly excellent fanfares and R. Vaughan William’s spirited “English Folk Suite.” During these solo performances one could hear the true soul of the night, in a great brass band simply filling the air with its glorious sound.
