The Toronto Symphony Orchestra opened its 2025-26 season with an intriguing double bill: Wynton Marsalis’ Concerto for Orchestra, in only its third performance, and a dramatic, yet sensitive account of Orff’s Carmina Burana.
The Marsalis work is intriguing. Its six movements are eclectic with jazz influences but maybe less than one might expect given the composer. The mood varies from lyrical, to jazzy, to something a bit more abrasive that’s a touch unexpected from an American composer. There are very loud, even bombastic passages, and as one might expect, the principals in the brass and woodwind sections get plenty to do. It’s been performed in Cologne and Los Angeles and now Toronto. It got a fine performance at the Roy Thomson and I can see it getting quite a lot more mileage.
Carmina Burana demonstrated what Music Director Gustavo Gimeno does really well; generate lots of energy while managing the tricky acoustics of Roy Thomson Hall. With a huge orchestra, the massed voices of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Toronto Children’s Chorus, creating a dramatic, even awesome sound, was always going to be easy and we got it with blazing accounts of “O Fortuna” bookending a generally fiery account. But there was delicacy too and Gimeno was not afraid to drop the orchestral volume right down to allow his excellent trio of soloists space to do more than just fight to be heard and he got the balance right too when the children came in.
The baritone soloist rather carries this piece and Sean Michael Plumb, making his TSO debut, sang with a compelling mixture of lyricism, power and a bit of cheek. Lover or bibulous abbot, Plumb had it all. Soprano Julie Roset, also on debut, made an excellent contribution to the “Courts of Love” section. Her voice is sweet toned and accurate and she’s expressive. The tenor soloist was Andrew Haji; no stranger to Toronto audiences. He basically has one job to do; to be funny and sympathetic in the Song of the Roasted Swan. Haji managed it, singing without a music stand which allowed for a bit of physical comedy to reinforce his plaintive, but not overly distorted, complaining.
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is also very much a known quantity here, having been singing with the TSO since 1935. What impressed me most was not the grandeur; with 200 or so singers that’s easy enough, but the clarity of the articulation in the faster passages. Fine singing too from the children up in the organ loft.
I suppose Carmina Burana can be seen as a bit hackneyed but when it’s done this well, it’s loads of fun.
