Toronto Mendelssohn Singers/Winterreise by Franz Schubert, performed by Jean-Sébastien Vallée, that includes baritone Brett Polegato, pianist Philip Chiu, and the Toronto Mendelssohn Singers, Jean Lamon Corridor, Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, Mar. 16.

Since turning into creative director of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in 2021, Jean-Sébastien Vallée has actually launched extra adventurous programming for the Toronto Mendelssohn Singers, the 24-member skilled arm of the venerable group.

For instance, final 12 months, the TMS carried out a program referred to as In Time — On the Intersection of Music and Dance. Their newest live performance featured Schubert’s tune cycle Winterreise in a brand new choral adaptation by German choral conductor and arranger Gregor Meyer that premiered in 2017.

Now purists might howl that this beloved work has been tampered with, (the 2 individuals in entrance of me left at intermission), however analysis reveals that there have been fairly just a few new approaches to Winterreise over time. As an example, Meyer did a second adaptation that includes baritone, refrain and two accordions, whereas fellow German composer Thomas Hanelt crafted a model for choir and piano that eliminates the solo singer. The work has additionally been set to a klezmer-Roma rating, a wind quintet, and, would you imagine, it has even been organized for a rock band.

Schubert composed Winterreise for male voice and piano in 1828 when he was dying of syphilis on the tragically younger age of 31. The music is ready to 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller, who was additionally the supply for Schubert’s different nice tune cycle, Die schöne Müllerin (1823). Each are dramatic monologues that includes younger males who’re wrapped in disappointment due to unrequited love. Whereas Die schöne Müllerin begins with some extent of lightness after which journeys to obvious suicide, it could actually’t examine to the utter bleakness of Winterreise (Winter Journey).

The solitary, tormented Wanderer in Winterreise begins with the sorrows of misplaced love, however strikes on to extra psychological despair. He’s haunted by traumatic visions. He turns into fixated on dying and even renounces his religion, till lastly he’s crammed with a resignation of vacancy. Photos of winter and a frozen panorama infuse the poems that are mirrored in Schubert’s music. The chilly, the darkness, and the desolation embedded within the songs are nearly palpable.

So how does the introduction of a choir have an effect on Winterreise? Nicely frankly, it takes some getting used to. The addition of many voices, nevertheless, does make the work appear one way or the other extra emotional, whereas opening up the music to a richer expression. Maybe, the best impression is to intensify the solitary nature of the soloist. Right here he’s, surrounded by voices, however nonetheless totally alone. The choir capabilities just like the Greek refrain in classical tragedies. They’re spectators who touch upon the emotional psyche of the protagonist, even turning into his internal monologue, however nonetheless remaining resolutely aside.

In Meyer’s adaptation, the choir doesn’t seem till the second verse of the primary tune, Gute Nacht (Good Evening), after which it’s with an nearly eerie vocalise, nearly one among menace. They do, nevertheless, get to carry out one tune on their very own, Der stürmische Morgen (Stormy Morning). The textual content displays the Wanderer’s pleasure within the savage storm, and since the singer is silent, the choir is a mirrored image of his internal demons. However, Meyer cleverly leaves Einsamkeit (Loneliness) with out choral accompaniment.

The construction of Meyer’s adaptation is fascinating. At varied occasions, the choir sings with the soloist, or takes over the lead, or responds like an echo. There are these moments of wordless accompaniment that underline the Wanderer’s despair. Meyer additionally has the refrain separating into sections at varied occasions, so there’s a actual differential within the choral sound.

If I’ve one reservation about Meyer’s adaptation, it’s that generally the sopranos are intrusive. Sopranos have a sharpness to their sound when in full flower, and so I discovered the choir’s participation labored greatest when the mezzo-sopranos and/or the lads have been used alone. One exception, nevertheless, is Der greise Kopf (The Gray Head) when one mournful soprano voice offered a plaintive wordless few notes earlier than each stanza, in a tune the place the Wanderer grieves that his very youth retains him far-off from the funeral bier.

As famous earlier than, Vallée is a grasp choral director, and the Mendelssohn Singers have been very disciplined of their supply. Vallée was like a recording engineer, choosing sure ranges all through, so there was super variety within the choir’s presentation. In different phrases, the choir was not only a wall of sound, however, relatively, was absolutely built-in into rendering the shifts of emotional depth current in Schubert’s music. Briefly, Vallée and the TMS are a category act.

Baritone Brett Polegato would ordinarily be alone with the piano in Winterreise, and so he needed to adapt to being surrounded by a refrain, which he did superbly. He managed to convey a picture of being tragically alone, but somebody who felt the natural impression of the choir’s presence. He fiercely maintained an unbiased existence, and after they sang collectively, rendered a loud declamation of sound, by no means to be overpowered by 24 voices,

Polegato’s voice has actually deepened and darkened over time, with attractive low notes and a extra commanding sound. He additionally broke each recital efficiency rule. Younger singers are often instructed that exhibiting an excessive amount of emotion in a recital is verboten, and also you actually don’t ever use your physique. In different phrases, let your voice do the speaking, so to talk. Polegato, nevertheless, made a compelling determine as each his facial and physique expression turned one with the music. Within the occasions when he was silent, his nonetheless determine, with eyes closed, radiated the Wanderer’s anguish and heartbreak. It was virtually operatic.

The piano accompanist was Philip Chiu, who gained the 2023 JUNO Award for solo classical album of the 12 months for Fables. Subsequently, we have been assured a powerful efficiency that might maintain its personal in opposition to the choir and soloist, giving us equal companions on this most fascinating of concert events.

In Winterreise, Schubert ensured that the piano was as vital because the singer. In truth, the music goes hand-in-hand with the various moods of the textual content.

Chiu discovered the distinctive rhythms of every tune, in addition to the dramatic arc of the monodrama as a complete. In Frühlingstraum (A Dream of Springtime), he expressed the lighter, nearly cheery photos of spring. In Täuschung (Deception) it was an ironic waltz, whereas Der Wegweiser (The Signpost) was rendered in meditative reflection. Whether or not it was a raging storm he conveyed, or the creak of a weathervane, or the clarion name of the submit horn, or the drone of the hurdy-gurdy within the sorrowful final tune, Chiu delivered a efficiency worthy of a solo recital.

Winterreise was divided into two halves, and every started with two songs carried out by the choir alone. Clara Schumann was featured within the first, and Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel within the second. The tuneful music of the ladies was anchored within the coronary heart of German romanticism, that was each simple on the ears and superbly sung.

Whereas TMC kindly offered translations for the songs, the low mild within the corridor didn’t permit you to learn them. It’s all the time a lot extra significant to have the ability to comply with together with the lied, so maybe administration can discover a approach to appropriate this downside sooner or later.

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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for varied cultural teams and universities, significantly on the position of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson Faculty for the Arts.

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