Tafelmusik: Handel’s Messiah. Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra & Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, Directed by Ivars Taurin, with Stefanie True, soprano, Krisztina Szabó mezzo-soprano, Ben Achieved, tenor, Jonathan Woody, bass-baritone. Koerner Corridor, December 18, 2025, continues December 19 & 20; tickets here.
There’s at all times the danger with Messiah that custom will do the heavy lifting — that grandeur will stand in for stylishness, reverence for perception. On the Koerner Corridor, Tafelmusik offered the proper antidote.
From the outset, this was Handel dealt with with care reasonably than with ceremony — alert, humane, and gently persuasive. Tempos breathed, textures stayed clear, and the music’s message of comfort was sympathetically provided reasonably than vulgarly proclaimed.
Ivars Taurins
All this unfolded underneath the supremely musical however visually over-enthusiastic conducting of Ivars Taurins, who appeared decided to provide a parallel choreography reasonably than merely enabling the music.
Whether or not an orchestra of this calibre wants such florid bodily enter definitely crossed the thoughts throughout the opening Sinfonia. However, the query quickly grew to become irrelevant. Taurins’ grasp of structure and construction in addition to expressive element rapidly asserted itself. As a seasoned Messiah director, he has a transparent imaginative and prescient of the work as an entire, but manages to make every stage of the journey really feel self-standing, rapid, and spontaneous.
Handel’s Genius
The lengthy view was bolstered by the inclusion of a number of actions usually excised. Fairly than feeling indulgent, these numbers slotted naturally into the unfolding narrative, permitting the fullest appreciation of Handel’s genius for scoring and musical drama.
Messiah stays a masterclass in sustaining consideration throughout three hours, its pacing, vocal and instrumental colouring all strategically deliberate. The off-stage trumpets — sounding from above the stage in Half One — served as a tantalising promise of better issues to return. When that promise was fulfilled within the Hallelujah refrain on the finish of Half Two, it was solely pure for your complete viewers to rise — a matter of conviction as a lot as conference.
Dynamics all through have been meticulously managed in an effort to draw most impression from the small however mighty ensemble and chamber choir. If the shaping sometimes felt consider to the purpose of calculation, the ensuing exaltation was plain — from For unto us a Youngster is Born in Half One to Worthy is the Lamb in Half Three.
The choir’s unanimity and razor-sharp diction have been a continuing pleasure, and whether or not in choruses or solo moments, accentuation was clear however by no means overdone. The music itself dictated the tempos, unfolding with a pure, unforced move.
Vocalists
The night demanded a level of camaraderie when British tenor Nicholas Scott was indisposed. His numbers have been taken by tenor Ben Achieved (from inside the choir) and soprano Stefanie True. Achieved’s voice, shiny and light-weight, was under no circumstances out-shone by his fellow soloists. In O demise, the place is thy sting, a quick lapse might need derailed the duet, however Taurins was there to discreetly collect the threads and information him by means of.
The alto solos have been taken by Canadian-Hungarian mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó, whose vocal expressiveness was evident, although assist and energy have been much less safe within the extra incendiary passages comparable to For he is sort of a Refiner’s Fireplace. American bass-baritone Jonathan Woody introduced a snarling, nearly villainous edge to darker numbers comparable to Thus Saith the Lord, however sounded reasonably husky and fewer assured in The Trumpet shall Sound, the place Kathryn James Adduci’s silky, warm-toned trumpet stole the scene.
By far the solo vocal spotlight was Canadian soprano Stefanie True. Her voice — clear, agile, and sweetly lyrical — moved effortlessly between delicacy and projection. When entering into the tenor territory of Behold, and See if There be any Sorrow, she subtly altered her timbre, providing not a substitution however a change.
Orchestra
The orchestra, delicate, fashionable, and idiomatic all through, underpinned the whole lot with quiet authority. Particular point out ought to go to concertmaster Christopher Verrette, whose management was refined, energetic and responsive, anchoring the ensemble’s unfailing readability of intent.
It was within the ultimate Amen that Taurins’ and Tafelmusik’s method crystallised most poignantly. Taken extra slowly than common, formed with excessive care, and expansively breathed, the fugue unfolded in a labyrinth of mild accumulation reasonably than a triumphant blaze.
Its energy lay not in quantity or grandeur, however in endurance and belief. In resisting pomp and preachery, your complete efficiency allowed Messiah to talk in a common language — one able to reaching past doctrine or custom. What emerged was not a monument however a religious message — consolatory, religious, pacific, inclusive, and above all dealt with with care.
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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 many years, and a inventive writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
