{"id":42424,"date":"2017-01-30T21:36:49","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T02:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=42424"},"modified":"2017-01-31T21:05:09","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T02:05:09","slug":"preview-a-rehearsal-ride-along-with-the-amadeus-choir-and-the-tso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/01\/30\/preview-a-rehearsal-ride-along-with-the-amadeus-choir-and-the-tso\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW | A Rehearsal \u201cRide Along\u201d With Faur\u00e9\u2019s Requiem At The TSO"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ste\u0301phane
Ste\u0301phane Dene\u0300ve (Photo: Drew Farrell)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

R<\/span>ehearsal begins: St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve hits the downbeat with intense ferocity, his mind and thought already on restraint and control. He understands this work deeply, and his entire body communicates this intention. He brings the sound instantly back, prepping the choir for a soft entrance. The choir flows beneath him, softly invoking a pleading prayer.\u00a0<\/span>Lydia Adams, conductor of the Amadeus Choir and the Elmer Iseler Singers, sits intently to the side, watching Maestro Den\u00e8ve massage his message through her choirs. I think they\u2019re well on their way to a stirring performance.<\/p>\n

Faur\u00e9\u2019s Requiem is a standard rite of passage for any chorister. I asked Lydia Adams of her thoughts on the composition. \u201cIt carries in it a sublime truth that instantly strikes the performer and listener. Immediately when you hear it, you know that Faur\u00e9 has found, in this work, a place of beauty and profound depth, thought and spirituality\u201d, she says. It is frequently programmed and performed with ensembles of various size.\u00a0<\/span>The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Elmer Iseler Singers, and the Amadeus Choir combine their power together to bring this work to life under French guest conductor St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve. This is his first time conducting a choral work with the TSO, and I hope it isn\u2019t his last.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Requiem is a hard sing because it requires such incredible restraint to be performed effectively. The melodies are long and sustained. Phrases stretch over several slow bars, a struggle to keep focus and intention without losing energy and devolving into a pit of mud. Faur\u00e9 is judicious with his use of anything more than a mezzo-forte throughout the piece. This makes the romance and beauty of his writing ever more clear. The preface of quiet restraint makes the louder sections of the work the more impressive and effective. <\/span><\/p>\n

Accompanied by the TSO, the Choirs have the advantage of stable, gentle, lines in the strings to help accompany the quiet restraint needed of the piece. The added complexity\u00a0and the difficult feat of singing with the TSO is overcoming the great space of Roy Thomson Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsonants,\u201d is a frequent direction from Den\u00e8ve. He wants pianissimo voice but fortissimo text. Especially in the \u201cAgnus Dei\u201d, the combined Choirs are almost outnumbered by the members of the Orchestra. In the hall, it can be a struggle to hear what they are saying.\u00a0 At almost half the size of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (only 60 musicians were requested by Maestro Den\u00e8ve), which equally struggles in the large cavernous hall. Den\u00e8ve\u2019s hope is to have the entire choir in one single line in the choir loft. But he knows, consonants are the only way to energize the lines and bring them across, no matter what dynamic.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Amadeus Choir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe ask the Lord to grant eternal rest. Imagine, looking in the eyes of whomever\u2026 it must feel fresh and childish\u2026\u00a0[an] intimate prayer.\u201d There is an incredible tension at play with many of the lines. Fortes are marked because there are pianos. \u201cKyrie\u201d has tension and different intention than the proceeding \u201cEleison\u201d. Then a different invocation in the same words in the bar after. The \u201cSanctus\u201d has repetition that must never feel repetitive. Den\u00e8ve describes infinity as repetition. God is offering us paradise in eternity\u201d. He speaks of Bach, fugal runs, counterpoint – it\u2019s all continuous and beautiful, but must never feel repetitive. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Tenors have a beautiful line after the introduction in the \u201cKyrie Eleison\u201d. They\u2019re trying too hard, working to be beautiful instead of working to simple. It is the simplicity that Deneve is after. <\/span><\/p>\n

Den\u00e8ve beckons earlier consonants, setting up the vowels so that the sound is \u201clike a flow of fresh water.\u201d His conducting matches his expression perfectly, a continuous expression of connected, legato singing. The tenors respond accordingly, providing the \u201cinfinite line\u201d Den\u00e8ve is looking for. \u201cMore life,\u201d he says, \u201cfree and easy, not one bit of tension.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPreparation is key\u201d, says Den\u00e8ve, \u201cso we know that you are going to say something\u201d. \u201cYou must think of this as like your first baby, so fragile, so small, so tender\u201d, says Den\u00e8ve. His interpretation makes the tension of the Faure so incredibly stirring. The energy and intention he brings is exciting and exceptionally vibrant. The Amadeus Choir, the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra will be joined by Canadian Baritone Russell Braun (newly appointed Officer of the Order of Canada) and Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin. With Adam\u2019s preparation and Den\u00e8ve\u2019s baton, the choir is ready to join the TSO for two nights<\/a> of the Faur\u00e9 Requiem. <\/span><\/p>\n

Coming up later in the Amadeus Choir season is Love Notes with special guest Sharon Smith, a jazz favorite. Saturday, February 18, 2017, 7 p.m. Jubillee United Church, Toronto. Later in April, Adams is especially pumped for a feature with Dr Roberta Bondar. \u201cWe are all very excited to perform with Dr. Roberta Bondar, our special guest, on this coming April 9th at Eglinton-St .Georges United Church to celebrate both the 25th Anniversary of Dr. Bondar’s flight into space and also put a spotlight on our environment\u201d, she says. The Amadeus Choir presents High Flight. April 9, 2017, 7:30pm. Eglinton-St Georges United Church, Toronto.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Elmer Iseler Singers, and the Amadeus Choir present Faur\u00e9\u2019s Requiem. Wednesday February 1, 2017<\/a>, 8pm & Thursday February 2,<\/a> 2017, 8pm. Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto.<\/p>\n

[Last Updated: January 31, 2017, 11:00 a.m.]<\/em><\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Chang offers an inside look at the rehearsal process with The Amadeus Choir, Elmer Iseler Singers, and Toronto Symphony for Faur\u00e9’s Requiem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":42425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,11,4557,60,63],"tags":[9371,3121,9370,6495],"yst_prominent_words":[9354,6607,8721,8718,9391,9387,9388,6929,9356,6674,9390,9389,6826,6741,6930,6914,6827,6825,9357,9355],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/01\/Ste\u0301phane_Dene\u0300ve_2_-_credit_Drew_Farrell.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-b2g","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42424"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42466,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42424\/revisions\/42466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42424"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=42424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}