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.

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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.

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