{"id":88541,"date":"2022-12-12T10:05:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T15:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=88541"},"modified":"2022-12-12T14:00:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T19:00:32","slug":"scrutiny-toronto-consort-constructs-baroque-christmas-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2022\/12\/12\/scrutiny-toronto-consort-constructs-baroque-christmas-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Toronto Consort Constructs A Baroque Christmas Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L-R
L-R (clockwise): David Fallis leaves the stage (Photo: Arthur Kaptainis); The Toronto Consort in concert (Photo: Arthur Kaptainis); The Toronto Consort (Image courtesy of The Toronto Consort)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Praetorius Christmas Vespers\/Toronto Consort; Artistic Direction by David Fallis. Dec. 9 & 10, Trinity-St. Paul\u2019s Centre.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) made good use of his allotted time on earth, but did not leave us anything bearing the title Christmas Vespers. This has not stopped the Toronto Consort from commissioning such an opus retroactively and even recording it. The venerable early music ensemble under David Fallis revived the sacred potpourri to joyous effect Saturday night in Jeanne Lamon Hall.<\/p>\n

To describe the ingredients of this 70-minute program is to unsettle our perception of the German Baroque before Bach as a relatively sombre era. There were solos, duets, trios, episodes of antiphonal back-and-forth, bits of plainchant, unaccompanied motets, and motets with various degrees of colourful instrumental support. There were even a couple of purely instrumental dance numbers, which I suspect would not form part of a vespers service, then or now.<\/p>\n

Most of the vocalism came courtesy of the dozen singers of the Consort, who were spread across the front of the stage, with an orchestra of 14 behind. For heavy duty, the Toronto Chamber Choir<\/a>, divided in two, was situated in the gallery, wearing masks but sounding strong nonetheless. Finally, the audience was asked to sing along in the opening and closing chorales \u2014 in keeping with Lutheran tradition as well as the protocols of the contemporary Christmas concert.<\/p>\n

It was good, communal fun, but there was also music of quality to sit back and hear, especially in a setting in German of the Magnificat<\/em>, which is thought to reflect what Praetorius learned from Italian musicians in his travels and studies. I was initially surprised by Fallis\u2019s view (as expressed in an erudite program note) that this work compares \u201cfavourably\u201d to Monteverdi\u2019s celebrated Vespers<\/em>, but after experiencing the sophistication, splendour and modernity of Part IV, I cannot quarrel with the opinion. The orchestra sounded brilliant (interesting that the three sackbut players were imported from Montreal) and the choristers sang with clarity and precision, on their own or together. The assertive treatment of the words \u201cHe hath showed strength with his arm\u201d was one of a few impressive pictorial effects.<\/p>\n

There were several hymns and carols, including Quem pastores<\/em>, magically performed with three soloists in the galleries. Praetorius\u2019s compatriots Heinrich Sch\u00fctz, Johann Hermann Schein and Johann Walther made brief appearances. Some selections, such as the settings of the Ten Commandments and the Lord\u2019s Prayer, were relatively simple in phrasing and harmony. One might think that no great skill was needed to put them across. In fact, the firm tone and excellent diction made them seem worthy of our attention.<\/p>\n

Fallis, the former Toronto Consort artistic director, led all this with a vivid sense of momentum and a keen ear for balance and colour. He was also a convivial master of ceremonies. The group is celebrating its 50th anniversary this season. It is aging well.<\/p>\n

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David Fallis led the Toronto Consort in a program of early German Baroque with a vivid sense of momentum and a keen ear for balance and colour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":88542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39907,74,19,21,52,63],"tags":[966,39837,4492],"yst_prominent_words":[7992,7899,9008,6892,7202,11624,13137,9987,11619,11621,7993,6616,8757,24986,10535,6741,11617,13572],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/Toronto-Consort-Review.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-n25","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88541"}],"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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88541"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88602,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88541\/revisions\/88602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88541"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=88541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}