Toronto Beach Chorale brings Carmina Burana to Kingston Road United Church this Sunday night
By SEAN MALLEN
Even if most people do not know the title, chances are that they have heard the most famous music from the choral masterpiece Carmina Burana. The kinetic, driving O Fortuna movement is instantly recognizable, having been featured in commercials for beer and Old Spice aftershave and in films as diverse as Excalibur and Jackass The Movie.
As he leads Toronto Beach Chorale’s rehearsals for their performance later this month, Artistic Director Mervin Fick calls upon another pop culture reference, telling the choristers that Carmina Burana will be as close as they ever get to singing with the rock group Queen.
“Some of the melodies are so raw, they remind me of (Queen lead singer) Freddie Mercury,” he said. “The whole thing is supported by rhythmic drive, and in that way modern rock music is defined by the same thing.”
Set for Kingston Road United Church at 7:30 p.m., the April 26 performance promises to be dazzling.
The Mississauga Chamber Singers will be joining the Chorale to boost the vocal impact, accompanied by two grand pianos facing each other at the front along with the TorQ Percussion Quartet.
“I can hardly wait to get my teeth into it. There’s something spectacular about playing things with two pianos. They become the symphony orchestra,” said Ron Greidanus, who will be at the keyboard of one of the grands, opposite Adolfo De Santis.
“It’s more virtuosic and impressive.”
Carmina Burana is also a feast for percussionists. Typically, it requires six performers, but in this case TorQ has adapted it so that their four members can cover the parts. They will be busy, each playing between five and eight instruments, including timpani, snare drums, cymbals, xylophone, bass drum, chimes, gong, two glockenspiels and a car brake drum (in lieu of an anvil).
“We’re four guys who are passionate about percussion,” said Richard Burrows of TorQ. “We say jokingly that we hit stuff for a living.”
Burrows and his partners have performed Carmina Burana many times and he says there is nothing like seeing and hearing it in person, as audiences uniformly give it a standing ovation.
“It’s visceral, and to me that just speaks volumes for the level of excitement that the piece can bring.”
The music for Carmina Burana was written by the German composer Carl Orff, set to a series of medieval poems, mainly in Latin. On its debut performance in Frankfurt in 1937, it became an immediate sensation and remains a staple in the choral repertoire.
A central image is the wheel of fortune (thus the O Fortuna movement), not the game show, but a reference to the ancient concept of how humans can experience many highs and lows in the course of their lives, with the wheel bringing success, love and happiness at one turn and disaster, dismissal and despair at the next.
“The wheel of fortune is as old as time. Somebody climbs up the ladder to the top of the wheel, and then the wheel turns, and you’re thrown off and you’re back down at the bottom,” said Fick. “Some people, like Joni Mitchell, would call it the carousel of life.”
The April 26 performance will open with a series of European folk songs, including works by Brahms, Bartok and Grieg, all of which influenced Orff. As Fick loves to do at each performance of the Chorale, he will periodically offer commentaries to set the stage for each piece.
“I stand in front of an audience and say thank you for coming. Let me be your tour guide as we travel through this part of music history, much like when you land yourself in a city in Europe, and you hop on a tour bus.“
Tickets for Carmina Burana can be purchased through the Toronto Beach Chorale’s website at https://www.torontobeachchorale.com/
