WORKING WONDERS
Conductor Ivars Taurins enchants the audience with his appoach to Bach’s Mass in B Minor,
Mass in B Minor (out of 4) By Johann Sebastian Bach. Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir with soloists. Ivars Taurins, conductor. Repeats Tuesday at George Weston Recital Hall, 5040 Yonge St. tafelmusik.org or 416-964-6337
On Thursday night, conductor Ivars Taurins, the Tafelmusik Orchestra, Chamber Choir and guest soloists worked wonders with a piece of music that already represents the very best of human creativity.
It has been more than three centuries since Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685, but there have been few composers capable of doing as much with the 12 notes of the Western musical scale.
As his professional life drew to a close, he assembled the very best of his already impressive and huge body of choral writing to fashion the Mass in B minor.
Because it sets the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass, Bach could not hope that it would be performed in the churches of Lutheran Germany.
Instead, this was meant as the composer’s equivalent of a Tiffany showcase. And this is why we usually hear this Mass in a concert setting.
The craft and imagination behind this two-plus-hour work would take a thick book to describe in detail.
Suffice it to say, listening to it in one sitting is a lot like dashing through the Louvre, admiring one masterpiece after another. The best one can hope to re- member is a memorable detail in each movement.
Just an ordinary run-through with good singers and a competent orchestra would be satisfying enough. But Taurins, the founding conductor of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, has taken the art of interpreting this fearsome piece many notches above ordinary.
The fine shaping of this complex music at his hands was awe-inspiring on Thursday night.
The beauty of his approach was that the details were are all worked out with tremendous care, but the larger sweep of each movement was rendered to sweep the listener along without distraction.
The period instruments of Tafelmusik, augmented with brass and timpani, were in excellent form.
The choir was spectacular in its balance as well as power. And the guests soloists — mezzo Laura Pudwell, soprano Dorothee Mields, tenor Charles Daniels and baritone Tyler Duncan (as well as Chamber Choir alto Richard Whittall) — were impressive.
This was one of those concerts where everything came together to impress the ears and lift up the soul, making it one of the great choral presentations of the season in Toronto.
The remainder of the concerts at Trinity-St Paul’s Centre’s Jeanne Lamon Hall were sold out aside from restricted view seats, according to the Tafelmusik website, but there are still seats available for Tuesday’s performance at George Weston Hall.
Consider it a must if you want to hear Bach at his most awesome.