The ‘A Cappella Live’ series, the second phase in this year’s atypical 15th edition of Gaulitana: A Festival of Music, was brought to a wonderful close on Sunday 4th December with ‘A String Finale’. The concert was held at the beautiful St Anthony of Padua Church in Ghajnsielem, courtesy of Fr Superior Marcello Ghirlando, with the collaboration of the Għajnsielem Local Council.
The concert featured the Gaulitanus String Orchestra (Leader: Marcelline Agius) directed by Gaulitana artistic director Colin Attard in a very enjoyable repertoire. It opened with Mozart’s eternally popular ‘Eine Kleine Nacht Musik’ and continued with Vasily Kalinnikov ‘Serenade for Strings’ and Mykola Lysenko’s ‘A Prayer for Ukraine’. Jean Sibelius’s ‘Impromptu’, Charles Camilleri’s ‘Nocturne’ from the ‘Malta Suite’ and Edward Elgar’s gorgeous ‘Deux Chansons’ Op 15 followed. The concert came to an end with the bouncy 1st movement from Karl Jenkins’s ‘Palladio’. This, as was also the case with the other excerpts, was very much acclaimed by the sizeable and very warm audience which patronised the concert and had to be be (partly) encored.
Photos: Lorne Cremona

