DAY 2:
A good breakfast opened the concert tour’s ‘big day’. Choristers had a free morning during which one could explore Venice’s main sights or the city’s canals through a gondola ride, before meeting again later in the afternoon at the San Salvador Church for the general rehearsal.
The choir’s first artistic event and the closing concert of the 3rd edition of the Vivaldi Festival – very significantly on the 282nd death anniversary of the great Baroque Venetian composer – was scheduled at 20:30hrs at this historic church with fine acoustics in the very heart of Venice. The festival’s artistic director Enrico Castiglione introduced the event, welcoming the big audience which packed the church as well as presenting the participants. The Vivaldi Festival Orchestra (leader: Marco Nicolussi) then took the stage under the baton of Gaulitanus musical director Colin Attard.
The well-chosen programme was fittingly principally devoted to works by Antonio Vivaldi, ‘il prete rosso’, and complimented by works by other composers from the late Renaissance or the early Classical eras.
The concert opened with 2 Vivaldi works: the Sonata a 4 in Eb (“Al Santo Sepolcro”) followed by the Concerto in D (“Per la Lingua di San Antonio”) featuring solo violinist Pierre Louis Attard (himself a member of the Gaulitanus’s choral line-up). This execution was highly acclaimed, with the soloist called on stage various times.
The Gaulitanus Choir then gave its first contribution, performing three ‘a cappella’ works, namely Arcadelt’s ‘Ave Maria’ and two ‘Jubilate Deo’, one by Praetorius and another by Mozart. The orchestra then continued with Handel’s ‘Sarabanda’ from the Suite in D Min and Pachelbel’s ‘Canon and Gigue’. The choir’s soprano soloist Anna Bonello then gave a very expressive rendering of Alessandro Stradella’s ‘Pietà Signore’ with the choir and orchestra continuing with Bach’s chorale ‘Jesu Decus Angelorum’, Pergolesi’s ‘Vexilla Regis Prodeunt’, Mozart’s ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ and Cherubini’s ‘Veni, Jesu, Amor Mi’. The concert was then brought to its official ending with 2 other works by Vivaldi, the ‘Laudate Dominum Omnes Gentes’ and the ‘Gloria in Excelsis’.
The audience’s reaction was simply gorgeous, with lengthy applauses and a standing ovation necessitating 2 climactic encores: Pierre Louis Attard’s own ‘O Salutaris Hostia (in classical style)’ also featuring solo soprano Anna Bonello was performed – which, while dedicated to Enrico Castiglione, gave a Maltese touch to the programme –, followed by a reprise of Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria in excelsis’.
The concert received wide media coverage, with a slot also appearing on RAI’s TGRegionale the day after.
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