The Gaulitanus Choir has presented Cambridge University´s Corpus Christi College Choir in a concert at the Gozo Cathedral on Tuesday, 3rd July. Entitled Sing Joyfully Unto God, this was part of the UK choir´s Malta tour and a result of a long-standing ongoing collaboration between the Gaulitanus and the college’s Director of Music, Robin Walker.
The first part of the concert was dedicated to renaissance a cappella motets by Tallis, Byrd, Parsons and Marenzio. The second part was devoted to contemporary works, starting off with some movements from Jonathan Dove´s Missa Brevis. During this exciting work the choir was accompanied from the recently-restored organ on the loft by organ scholar Paul Newton-Jackson. The latter also had one of his compositions performed alongside one by another of choir member, David Nunn. Works by Judith Weir, Anders Edenroth and the US choral group Pentatonix completed this section. Very fittingly, Mro Walker also gave the opportunity to direct the choir to two choir members: New Zealander Paul Newton-Jackson, and American Daniel Fanelli.
The last part of the concert was reserved to a joint performance by the two choirs, featuring the immortal God So Loved the World from Stainer´s Crucifixion and Faure´s Cantique de Jean Racine. These were directed by the Gaulitanus´s founder-director and the evening´s artistic director, Colin Attard, with Robin Walker on the organ. Acknowledging the very warm response from the audience, the choirs performed Mozart´s Ave Verum Corpus as an encore.
The UK contingent was led the Master of Corpus Christi, Stuart Laing and his wife Sibella – who, coincidentally, has a very strong relationship with Malta being the daughter of the last British governor of Malta, Sir Maurice Dorman.
photos credit: Francesco Demoro
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