The ‘A Cappella Live’ series in the atypical and hybrid 15th edition of Gaulitana: A Festival of Music was brought to an end with a concert by Kor Malta on Sunday 22nd January at St. Augustine Church, Victoria. The event was originally scheduled for late November but had to be postponed at the eleventh hour as the Gozo ferry had cancelled its service on the day.
Kor Malta, the national choir, was appearing in Gozo for the first time ever, and was under the direction of its affable Italian conductor Riccardo Bianchi. Using various spaces around the church – whether behind the altar, the organ loft, the centre of the church or the normal concert space in front of the main altar -, it presented a most varied and unique sacred repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the contemporary, entitled ‘Sacrae Cantiunculae’. This consisted of Ludovico Fogliano’s ‘Missa quatuor Vocibus’, Pierre Passerau’s ‘Il est bel et bon’, Franz Biebl’s ‘Ave Maria’, Mortem Lauridsen’s ‘O Magnum Mysterium’, the traditional Norwegian wedding song ‘Bruremarsj fra Valsøyfjord/Aure’ and the ‘Magnus Dominus’ by eminent Maltese composer Benigno Zerafa. However, pride of place was given to Claudio Monteverdi. Apart from his ‘Adoramus te, Christe’, 5 numbers – ‘O Bone Jesu’, ‘Quam Pulchra est’, ‘Ave Maria’, ‘O Crux Benedicta’ and ‘Lapidabant Stephanum’ – from his ‘Sacrae Cantiunculae’ were performed.
The performance was very warmly received and Kor Malta acknowledged the very generous applause by giving an encore.
The EFFE-labelled festival, which is organised by the Gaulitanus Choir and artistically directed by Colin Attard, is principally supported by the ICOG programme of Arts Council Malta and the Ministry for Gozo.
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