Tafelmusik turned their choral specialist loose for their season-concluding Handel celebration concert. If you have any way of getting to this concert do so, a love-fest centred on Handel and his alter-ego Ivars Taurins.

You may know Ivars Taurins for his Messiah, including his annual portrayals of George Frideric Handel for the singalong.

No wonder one might think that Ivars knows how Handel thinks.

On this occasion Ivars was in modern formal attire, but fully immersed in the sensibility of the baroque composer to assemble a pasticcio from an assortment of arias and choruses from Tafelmusik Chamber Choir.

The result? an absorbing evening of truly brilliant performances that suggest maybe Tafelmusik should give Ivars more opportunities to conduct. There were no dull moments in a program perfectly balancing solo and choral numbers.

Ivars made everyone look and sound good.

We heard amazing coloratura from soprano Amanda Forsythe, sometimes in games of imitation with wind players before and after intermission. “Sweet bird” from L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato might be mistaken for something more recent with its brilliant virtuoso flute part played to perfection by Grégoire Jeay.

But this is a baroque sensibility as the “bird” (aka the flute) shows off his skill while seemingly competing with the soprano in a joyful singing competition to make Wagner and his Meistersingers blush. It’s not impressionism but more of a pictorial game, and it’s pure fun as they match voices. Forsythe’s takes unexpected turns always bang on pitch but sometimes delicate up top, flying as high as the birds with her extraordinary range and precision. When it was time to show us Semele’s coloratura she flew every bit as high, adding a layer of humour in her amusing presentation of “Myself I shall adore”, exchanging smiles with her Jupiter, tenor Thomas Hobbs.

Hobbs/Jupiter then took us gently into the realm of erotic love with his presentation of the familiar “where’er you walk”, including a breath-taking da capo verse that literally stopped the show for a moment when I heard the entire Koerner Hall audience silent in anticipation.

Clever Ivars assembled these solo marvels among a series of choral showpieces. Don’t mistake the chorus for a backdrop or secondary element, not when their works are the highlights of the evening.

Set between the visits to the score of Semele we heard a stunning reading of the Hercules chorus about jealousy, the “infernal pest”. Ivars made great theatre out of this piece, as the chorus crackled as they hissed the word “jealousy” to make you shiver at what was to come. And of course that’s subtext for what Juno does to Semele.

The choruses we hear are often short back and forth in happy and mournful moods, martial colours for war or philosophical musings about death. The Tafelmusik Orchestra responded to Ivars leadership, his gestural language for orchestra similar to his technique for chorus, fluid and sensitive, always clear.

Chorus and solo numbers seem to arrive on a somewhat even footing given that Ivars the choral conductor is never one to undervalue choral expression but curating a collection to make soloist and chorus shine equally.

Tafelmusik have always been a generous organization dodging the usual egomania of classical music, in a committee approach to leadership shared over the years. Ivars helmed the choral journeys, David Fallis the operatic & balletic voyages via Opera Atelier and the enlightened leadership of Jeanne Lamon for so many years.

I hope Ivars gets more opportunities to curate and conduct given the excellence of this program. Imagine a Tafelmusik Missa Solemnis for example.

For 2024-25 Tafelmusik won’t offer anything more modern than Mozart in next season’s programming but in fairness they know their strengths. Much as I desire to hear them undertake romantics, symphonies of Mendelssohn, Schubert or Schumann, the concerti of Beethoven, Berlioz or Chopin, Tafelmusik are after all a baroque ensemble. They know who they are and on occasions such as the concerts this weekend they are as good as anyone in the world, certainly a treasure for Torontonians to celebrate and cherish.

Tafelmusik’s Handel Celebration continues Saturday and Sunday June 1 & 2 at Koerner Hall.