Soundstreams: Mass for the Endangered. David Fallis, Conductor; Louise Bessette, piano soloist; Judy Loman, harp; Erika Raum, violin; Soundstreams Choir 21; Ensemble Soundstreams. Trinity-St Paul’s Centre, November 22, 2025.
Come, attendants of creation, to this stream of ecclesiastical resonances.
Saturday evening, on the Jeanne Lamon Corridor in Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, Soundstreams — the music presenter lead by creative director Lawrence Cherney — opened its forty third season in birdsong.
With its reverent choir and ensemble, the two-act live performance parsed via the works of Avro Pärt, Andrew Balfour and Chris Hutchings earlier than touchdown on the acclaimed perch of its centrepiece — Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass For the Endangered, that includes a libretto by Nathaniel Bellows.
On the pre-talk, Cherney, accompanied by music director and conductor David Fallis and Michael Mesure — the chief director of Deadly Gentle Consciousness Program (FLAP) Canada — shared their intentions behind their curatorial selections and prompted the viewers to contemplate the irreversible harm human existence has left on the pure world.
Supposed to be carried out in 2021, earlier than COVID put a wrench in it, Snider’s Mass For the Endangered, a 47-minute, 6-part choral work, initially commissioned by Trinity Church Wall Avenue, is a bleak plea for mercy, but in addition, in “Credo,” Fallis famous, a glint of reclamatory hope.
Fallis, erudite, offered background concerning the French composer Olivier Messiaen, whose piano solos, taken from the 13-piece Catalogue d’oiseaux (1958), construction the primary act. A fervent, obsessive birder, Messiaen had named every of solos not solely after the fowl that impressed, however by the rooted impressions of setting surrounding them too, in order that one can “really feel the heat.”
Mesure got here in to tell us that, in accordance a examine from Cornell, three billion birds have been misplaced since 1970 attributable to a wide range of elements starting from home windows, pesticides and plastic waste.
“We’re all endangered on this world at the moment,” Cherney stated of the ethos, solemn but stern. “The story we are attempting to inform tonight is about what we’ve misplaced, and what we’d reclaim.”
First Half
The evening started with pianist Louise Bessette, clad in a blue, floor-length silk gown with lace short-sleeves, committedly bringing Messiaen’s musical ornithology to life with “L’alouette calandrelle” (Mediterranean short-toed lark) and “Le courlis cendré” (Eurasian curlew).
The primary noticed her going backwards and forwards from the center of piano to the best octave so two voices have been in dialog, an summary, discordant piece that felt like a palette cleanser.
At one level, in direction of its conclusion, hand hovering above the keys, one was not sure whether or not Bessette was achieved, evoking the form of silence when one tunes into nature, which made the return into its portrait much more satisfying. The narratives in these items, if there have been any, have been troublesome to establish and appeared to encourage a break from interpretation to passively expertise.
The second solo, much less high-pitched, moved at a extra speedy tempo, made up of a run of trills and a melange of voices. Compared, it was extra erratic, disorganized, and chaotic, a gentle distinction.
Sandwiched between these two birds was R. Murray Schafer’s “Wild Fowl,” from 1998, a duo concertante performed by violinist Erika Raum and harpist Judy Loman, who, Cherney had beforehand famous, initially carried out in its world premiere.
True to its title, “Wild Fowl” allowed for the stringency of the violin to be buffeted by the jewel-like embraces of the harp, a sentiment amplified by Loman’s seated and Raum’s standing positions. Their unrelenting dialogue demonstrated how interpretations of birdsong can produce a wide range of sentiments — drama, violence, fortitude, wit, and the feeling of swirling ascendency.
When the stage went darkish and the home lights went up, we turned our consideration to the balcony’s gallery, the place Soundstreams Choir 21, dressed all in black, rose from the pews, scores in hand.
Beneath Fallis’ swish, unostentatious command, they carried out a trio of choral octavos.
In Balfour’s “Gaze Upon The Bushes,” they patiently unfurled Duke Redbird’s textual content, colouring phrases like “love,” “melted,” “leaves,” and repeating phrases like “sea” to create a hovering transcendence that was to be instantly contrasted with the indignant, scolding tone of Hutchings’s “Let Them Not Say,” with phrases by Jane Hirshfield. Greater than the sweetness — for isn’t that the phrase we at all times attain for, is best to succeed in for, most of the time appears to suffice — it was the anger and concern that was palpable of their efficiency.
Lastly, they turned to Pärt, whose ninetieth birthday Soundstreams will have a good time in February 2026, and his music for the normal hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus,” which evoked the potential for being absolved for our collective sins and a want to be revitalized by grace.
“Ignite the sunshine of our senses,” they sang, in Latin: “Pour love into our hearts.”
This, they have been capable of obtain, making the hassle to crane our necks round worthwhile, however when our consideration returned to the stage, the place Bessette performed yet one more piece from Messiaen’s catalogue (“Le traquet rieur,” the black wheatear), which was overlong and never distinct sufficient from the second, I felt robbed from the sense of heights the choir had achieved.
However, as typically happens with blended packages, one is commonly met with obscure, forgotten items that may assist perceive, put together us for what’s to come back, the traces of the previous that linger behind the current.
It doesn’t must do with Bessette’s consummate efficiency; after a while, even discordance establishes it’s personal conventionality. I spotted Messiaen doesn’t converse to my soul, a sentiment which appeared to be shared with the person seated behind me, who let loose a giant lengthy sigh.
Second Half
After intermission, it was time to expertise the evening’s highly-anticipated namesake.
Written for a choir and 12 devices, Mass For The Endangered — by turns divine, mystical and luxurious — is a prayer for the animals of our world on the point of extinction that gives ample alternatives for the abilities of its artists to shine.
Keyboardist Gregory Oh, for example, whose delicate piano chorus opens “Kyrie” and returns in “Agnus Dei” framed and thus grounded its broad and baroque scope.
Loman, who left out a piece on the prime of “Gloria” and requested or not it’s re-started once more, introduced a way of finality to her notes that splendidly complimented the swooning vocal association that sopranos Meghan Moore and notably Sinéad White pristinely delivered.
In “Credo,” which includes a five-note ostinato by Caroline Shaw, clarinetist Anthony Thompson, flautist Stephen Tam, bassoonist Zsofia Veronica Stefan, and Ryan Scott’s percussion took turns conjuring up vivid pictures — as if shifting via the woods; encountering species alongside the way in which — that aligned with the alliterativeness of the textual content that climaxes with a collection of pronouncements.
“We imagine in all who’re unvoiced,” they sang en masse. “We imagine all who’re silenced.”
Elsewhere, soprano Lesley Bouza and tenor Jean Paul Feo colored their temporary cases of highlight with an individuality that gave the totality of emotion the mandatory pressure to propel it.
“Agnus Dei,” the sixth and ultimate motion, at one level, activated each instrument and voice on stage, as soon as once more freed the viewers, and the critic, from evaluation in an effort to undergo its stirring vortex of non secular feeling colliding with ecological grief and a deep want for forgiveness.
It was as if all the things have been resulting in this second, whence our eardrums have been absolutely dilated.
“Lamb of God,” they sang in conclusion. “Give surprise, want, give kindness again.”
With Soundstreams, the wonders of creation are returned to us in abundance.
By Nirris Nagendrarajah for Ludwig-Van.
Are you trying to promote an event? Have a news tip? Have to know one of the best events taking place this weekend? Ship us a note.
#LUDWIGVAN
Get the every day arts information straight to your inbox.
Join the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! — native classical music and opera information straight to your inbox HERE.
Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 a long time, and a inventive writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
