Toronto Summer season Music: An Night in Vienna — Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Ok. 525; Kreisler: Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen; R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Waltz (arr. Váša Přihoda); Mozart: Ch’io mi scordi di te?, Ok. 505; J. Strauss: Radetzky-Marsch, Op. 228; J. Strauss – Rosen aus dem Süden, Op. 388; Emmerich Kálmán & Leo Stein: Die Csárdásfürstin; Franz Lehár: Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß; Franz Lehár: Vilja Lied; Franz Lehár: Zigeunerliebe ; J. Strauss: Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437; J. Strauss: Wein, Weib und Gesang, Op. 333. Simone McIntosh, mezzo-soprano; Yura Lee, violin; Jonathan Mak, piano; TSM Competition Orchestra; Jennifer Mak, host. Koerner Corridor, July 31, 2025.
For followers of the Toronto Summer season Music Competition, it’s all the time slightly unhappy after we get to the final days of the month-long occasion. However all good issues should come to an finish, and I can’t consider a happier option to convey it to a detailed than having a night of Viennese waltzes, beautiful operettas and diverse bon-bons.
It was certainly a festive night. The TSM organizers even despatched out emails to ticket holders, suggesting that they could simply think about dressing up for the event.
Wow, let’s faux Koerner Corridor is the Musikverein and let’s go for a little bit of glitz and glamour, lets? Thank goodness that the summer time warmth wave had abated in time and it wasn’t too stifling to be in formal put on!
First Half
The primary half opened in genteel trend, with that extraordinarily acquainted Mozart gem, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, superbly performed by the chamber ensemble led by violinist Jonathan Crow. It set the temper for the following piece, Alt Wiener Tanzweisen, composed by the good violin virtuoso, Fritz Kreisler. It was a virtuosic work, designed to indicate off the dazzling strategy of the 2 soloists. Yura Lee (violin) and Jonathan Mak (piano) had been as much as the duty completely.
The 2 of them adopted the Kreisler with waltz music from one among my very favorite operas, Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, in an association by Czech violin virtuoso Vaša Přihoda. This was the primary time that I heard this music performed by simply two devices, and admittedly it was a little bit of a shock. I gained’t lie and say I didn’t miss a full-size Strauss orchestra, however it was nice credit score to Lee and Mak for making it so beautiful to the ear.
The primary half concluded with the well-known Mozart live performance aria “Ch’io mi scordi di te?” sung with gleaming tone by Canadian mezzo Simone McIntosh. A COC Ensemble graduate, McIntosh is having fun with a wonderful profession internationally. I’ve all the time thought that along with her expertise and musicality, she’d go locations. On her schedule is Adalgisa in Norma in Hamburg later this season – not too shabby, eh?
Second Half
The second half opened with the full of life and rousing Radetzky March, performed with nice vitality and elan by the complete Competition Orchestra. Host Jennifer Mak helped put the viewers within the temper by main them in rhythmic clapping. Then it was Simone McIntosh once more, providing arias from 4 well-known operettas, Die Csárdáfürstin, Giuditta, Die Lustige Witwe, and Zigeunerliebe.
These operettas hardly get absolutely staged on this facet of the pond, and it’s a disgrace. I had the nice fortune of getting seen them in Germany over time. McIntosh delivered the arias with refulgent tone, her massive gleaming excessive mezzo with its good high by no means sounded higher. Added to that her irrepressible stage persona, and you’ve got a successful system.
Her “Meine Lippen, sie Küssen so heiß” was excellent, the best way she was dancing round onstage jogged my memory a lot of Anna Netrebko, besides that McIntosh didn’t take her sneakers off. Touching was her Vilja Lied, a diva car if ever there’s one, so generally it will probably come throughout as a bit affected, however not in her case! She sang it so wistfully, throwing in an interpolated excessive B pure for good measure – it’s one for the reminiscence financial institution.
Closing Ideas
The final two gadgets had been reserved to indicate off the wonderful Competition Orchestra — “Kaiser-Walzer,” and ending with “Wein, Weib und Gesang,” or “Wine, Lady and Tune,” a quite sexist title however musically beautiful simply the identical. The waltz melodies from these final two items gave me itchy ft — too unhealthy we weren’t in a ballroom.
There you’ve it, a beautiful musical conclusion to the twentieth Anniversary Toronto Summer season Musical Competition mainstage live performance sequence. Might there be one other 20 years and extra.
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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 repeatedly 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).
