The Larkin Singers wrapped up their 2012-13 season with a satisfying Saturday afternoon concert at the Church of the Holy Trinity behind the Eaton Centre in the company of Toronto’s TorQ Percussion Quartet.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
All of the music on the programme was recent — especially the premiere of a new commission by young Toronto composer Riho Maimets. All of the music also came from a similar tonal aesthetic, built on sustained, slowly evolving harmonies, creative dissonance and gradual building up to viscerally satisfying climaxes.
The first half of the programme was given over largely to sacred works; the second half to secular.
One of the standout elements in this concert was how seamlessly the members of TorQ — Richard Burrows, Adam Campbell, Jamie Drake and Daniel Morphy — integrated with Larkin’s 18 singers. They are a very talented quartet that showed how they can play with others as impressively as with each other.
The Larkin Singers, who turned 5 this season, have the makings of a truly great choir. They possess clear, young voices, tremendous blend and balance across the widest possible dynamic range. They were a pleasure to listen to. It could be because they only perform a handful of concerts together every year, but there were several occasions when a final little bit of polish would have made them as good as some of Northern Europe’s best choirs.
It’s really a niggle, but it would have helped if the members of the choir had smiled once in a while, instead of looking as tired and grey as the leaden sky that hung over downtown.
In the second half of the programme, the Larkins sang a wedding blessing song by American star composer Eric Whitacre. But hearing the words “may this marriage be the scene of happiness” accompanied by long faces pretty much undermined the message.
Such minor gripes aside, it was a fantastic concert.
The afternoon opened with Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s spectacular Beatitudes, which dates from 1990. Chorister Rachel Mahon accompanied at the organ, joined by some excellent effects by the TorQ boys.
There were two more pieces by Pärt — settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis — before the TorQ quartet gave the singers a break with a mesmerizing all-percussion arrangement (by Jamie Drake) of “Jerusalem” that had been inspired by hearing the Soweto Gospel Choir.
The concert’s first half was brought to a resounding close by Misericordia, a new piece by Maimets. Built carefully and deliberately on a simple minor third that slowly developed and expanded into subtly shifting clusters of sound, it was a wonderful showcase for the considerable talents of both singers and percussionists.
Matthew Larkin, who is better known in Ottawa than in Toronto, is an accomplished organist as well as choral director. He stepped over to the church’s impressive Casavant pipe organ to engage in an improvisation with the TorQ quartet after intermission.
This was a rarely-heard collaboration that showed off how neatly a variety of tones and timbres can intermingle when the improvisers are nicely connected with each other.
Five pieces of Whitacre’s closed the programme, ending with Cloudburst, an overwrought, slightly choppy piece that includes the depiction of a passing rainstorm. For me, the most seductive of the pieces was Sleep — not the original choral version, but an arrangement for four sets of mallets on two vibraphones.
The TorQ boys were masterful.
The whole collaboration was so satisfying in the friendly acoustics of Church of the Holy Trinity, that I would love to see this partnership resume as soon as possible.
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The Larkin Singers announced a three concert 2013-14 season at the Church of the Holy Trinity.
The first programme, on Nov. 23, celebrates the centenary of Benjamin Britten with Hymn to St Cecilia and Rejoice in the Lamb. The second concert is in January, celebrating settings of the Magnificat, and the season closes with a programme of “modern mystics” next April.
You’ll eventually find all the details here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
