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The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir's 115th season launches with
A Man Divine featuring Dona nobis pacem
by R. Vaughan Williams and Ein Deutsches
Requiem by Johannes Brahms on Friday,
November 7. Noel Edison will conduct soloists soprano Cindy Koistinen
and baritone Peter Barrett, along with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
and the Festival Orchestra.
Vaughan Williams' contemporary secular cantata, Dona nobis pacem,
is juxtaposed with Brahms' deeply moving human requiem, Ein
Deutsches Requiem. Vaughan Williams' "warning against war,"
composed in the aftermath of WW1, is an agnostic philosophical piece
using poetry by Walt Whitman and John Bright. Brahms' classic sacred
requiem reflects a traditionally Christian view of death. Both address
loss and remembrance, transformation and consolation. A fitting
Remembrance Day tribute.
The concert title comes from text in the war-lamenting poetry of
Walt Whitman that Vaughan Williams used to set Dona nobis pacem.
The line reads "for my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is
dead". "I've come to the conclusion that the works of man terrify
me more than the works of God" - Ralph Vaughan Williams
A Man Divine will be performed the weekend before Remembrance
Day, on Friday, November 7, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. at Yorkminster Park
Baptist Church. A Pre-Concert Chat starts at 7:15p.m.
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Subscription Packages start at $70, and
single tickets range from $30 to $78. Tickets and subscriptions
are available by telephone at 416-598-0422 or online at
www.tmchoir.org.
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is generously supported by the Canada
Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto
Arts Council.
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