Eminent Maltese critic Cecilia Xuereb reviews the first concerts held as part of Gaulitana: A Festival of Music 2024.
Pie Jesu – A Sacred Opening, a vocal-instrument concert on Saturday March 23 featuring Gillian Zammit (Soprano), Pierre Louis Attard (Viola), the Gaulitanus Choir and Gaulitanus String Orchestra under the baton of Colin Attard was followed by Lament, Passion & Glory on Sunday morning a journey of Baroque music interpreted by Fiorella Camilleri (Flute) and Festival Artist-in-Residence Alexander Frey (Organ)
The 17th edition of Gaulitana, the four-week music festival that is held every spring in Gozo, opened last Saturday in the church of St Francis in Rabat with a vocal and instrumental concert directed by the Festival founder and artistic director Colin Attard. This was hardly a festive event, but rather one that set the audience reflecting on Holy Week. The concert was given the title Pie Jesu after the popular aria from Faure’s Requiem that soprano Gillian Zammit sang so beautifully. As a result the programme consisted mostly of sombre numbers that performed by Ms Zammit, the Gaulitanus Choir, and the Gaulitanus String Orchestra with whom Pierre Louis Attard performed as soloist in most of the numbers.
The choir opened the concert with two pieces, an Ave Verum by Valentino Miserachs Grau and Sub Tuam Misericordiam Confugimus by Agostino Donini. The choir’s sound is lightweight and translucent and it gave a successful soaring and exultant performance of these harmonically rich choral pieces.
The Gaulitanus String Orchestra is mostly made up of members of the Malta Philharmonic and its performance of a number of purely instrumental pieces showed it a worthy representative of its parent institution while Pierre Louis Attard’s solo performance with the orchestra, though not always necessary, gave a deeper warmer texture to the music. Among these was the beautiful Arioso from Bach’s Cantata BMV 156. Colin Attard’s Elegie Lyrique that followed was written in memory of his uncle Joseph Vella. Both performances were marked by excellent phrasing and smooth playing. Crisantemi by Puccini, another soulful elegy was performed by a quartet from the bigger ensemble. Choir, orchestra and soloist then got together for a performance of another work by Puccini, – his Requiem that he wrote upon the death of Verdi. The same combination performed Faure’s beautiful lament, Cantique de Jean Racine.
The evening was greatly enhanced by the fine singing of soprano Gillian Zammit. Ms Zammit’s singing is always special: on the one hand her musical phrasing is beautiful with the lines hovering and soaring just as they should. Yet at the same time she brings freshness and fluidity to the music combined with strong feeling for the expressive weight of each word. Apart from Faure’s Pie Jesu Ms Zammit sang Frank’s O Salutaris Hostia and a setting of Ruzar Briffa’s L-Ghanja ta’ L-Imnikket, a beautiful poem addressed to Our Lady of Sorrows by Colin Attard that captures the deep feeling of the poet for his subject. The composer emphasised key phrases in the poem by writing very high notes for the singer, a technique used by Joseph Vella in many of his vocal compositions. Vella was not only Attard’s uncle but also his mentor.
The final work of the programme got together soprano, choir, violist and orchestra for a rendering of Oh Divine Redeemer by Gounod in an arrangement by C. Attard.
The following day a morning concert presented flautist Fiorella Camilleri and organist Alexander Frey in a duo performance. The tone of the two instruments made a beautiful combination. Both performers are accomplished players thoroughly at ease with the idioms of the 18th century – the century when the works they performed were written. They are also both technically masters of their instruments. The Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Gluck’s Orfeo et Euridice is one of the most enchanting melodies ever written and conveyed the sadness that marks the opera. This was followed by two sonatas for flute and keyboard by J.S. Bach and by his son C.P. Bach. These clearly showed how the son while continuing on his father’s steps developed a musical personality of his own. More than any other piece Vivaldi’s Flute Concerto in C major that rounded off the programme was an opportunity for the flautist to reveal her brilliant playing. Here too, as throughout the concert, Frey was a very sensitive accompanist.
Cecilia Xuereb
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