Eastertide music
During Easteride there was a lot going on at the church of St Catherine of Italy. I was lucky to be able to attend the very first activty of Meditation, the nine-day festival of sacred arts, on Good Friday.This was a performance of Haydn's The Seven...
During Easteride there was a lot going on at the church of St Catherine of Italy. I was lucky to be able to attend the very first activty of Meditation, the nine-day festival of sacred arts, on Good Friday.
This was a performance of Haydn's The Seven Last Words. The best-known version of this work is for string quartet; but for this performance, members of the St James Consort performed a version for a string septet.
Tatjana Chricop and Marcelline Agius (1st violins); Nadya Debono and Roberta Attard (2nd violins); Sarah Spiteri and Stephen Zammit (violas) and Mario Psaila (cello) provided this deeply devotional and touching music. The admirably rich texture, precision and cohesion of this ensemble reigned supreme throughout the work. The mood-setting introduction embodies most of the elements which distinguish the whole work. The rhythmic richness, dramatic intensity and an almost tangible devotional atmosphere underlined the seven different sections providing the right air for each of the seven utterances.
Sarah Spiteri read poems and other literary extracts, not necessarily religious but all very, very human and appropriate to the Words. These reflective and sensitive readings together with the all-round fine performance by these experienced musicians contributed to make what is basically a series of seven adagios into an event during which interest never flagged. Right until the highly different, evocative, dramatic and shortest of the work's nine movements which describes so concisely the cataclysm which followed Christ's death.
On Easter Sunday morning, the Amadeus Chamber Ensemble gave a very delightful and successful concert. During the concert this ensemble alternated in direction between Brian Cefai and Michelle Cachia Castelletti. Well-known pianist Maureen Galea very ably performed as accompanist at harpsichord and organ.
The whole ensemble sang in Marcello's I cieli immensi, establishing a cohesion and balance which generally prevailed throughout the concert. There were some quite impressive solo pieces such as Mozart's Laudate Dominum (soprano Stephanie Degiorgio Wismayer and chorus); Gounod's Oh Divine Redeemer (soprano Michelle Cachia Castelletti) and Malotte's Our Father (tenor Brian Cefai). These singers were on excellent form. So was baritone Louis Cassar in Sound the Trumpet from Handel's Messiah. The organ accompaniment version and consequent non-appearance of the trumpet deprived the piece of half its virtuoso attraction. This in turn focused attention on the baritone and he performed his very difficult part with great credit.
There were more works for the whole vocal complement such as the crisp Gloria introduction from Vivaldi's Gloria in D. KV 589 and the cleverly woven Alleluia by Thompson. The quartet Quando corpus morietur from Rossini's Stabat Mater was a very balanced exercise featuring Michelle Cachia Castelletti, Joeanna Scerri (mezzo), Brian Cefai and Louis Cassar. The latter gentlemen joined forces with Marilyn Buhagiar (soprano) and Joeanna Scerri in a Gloria by Mozart, in which the male singers with their more polished singing had an edge over the ladies.
In Adams's beautiful and resounding The Holy City, tenor Brian Cefai dominated in the solo work with some of the latter shared also by Michelle Cachia Castelletti and Louis Cassar, with the chorus rounding off each stanza and of course all forces together in the work's finale. The real finale came with the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah, sung with crispness, decision, precision and overall smooth control which kept in check a certain tendency to accelerate too much at climactic points.
This was a performance of Haydn's The Seven Last Words. The best-known version of this work is for string quartet; but for this performance, members of the St James Consort performed a version for a string septet.
Tatjana Chricop and Marcelline Agius (1st violins); Nadya Debono and Roberta Attard (2nd violins); Sarah Spiteri and Stephen Zammit (violas) and Mario Psaila (cello) provided this deeply devotional and touching music. The admirably rich texture, precision and cohesion of this ensemble reigned supreme throughout the work. The mood-setting introduction embodies most of the elements which distinguish the whole work. The rhythmic richness, dramatic intensity and an almost tangible devotional atmosphere underlined the seven different sections providing the right air for each of the seven utterances.
Sarah Spiteri read poems and other literary extracts, not necessarily religious but all very, very human and appropriate to the Words. These reflective and sensitive readings together with the all-round fine performance by these experienced musicians contributed to make what is basically a series of seven adagios into an event during which interest never flagged. Right until the highly different, evocative, dramatic and shortest of the work's nine movements which describes so concisely the cataclysm which followed Christ's death.
On Easter Sunday morning, the Amadeus Chamber Ensemble gave a very delightful and successful concert. During the concert this ensemble alternated in direction between Brian Cefai and Michelle Cachia Castelletti. Well-known pianist Maureen Galea very ably performed as accompanist at harpsichord and organ.
The whole ensemble sang in Marcello's I cieli immensi, establishing a cohesion and balance which generally prevailed throughout the concert. There were some quite impressive solo pieces such as Mozart's Laudate Dominum (soprano Stephanie Degiorgio Wismayer and chorus); Gounod's Oh Divine Redeemer (soprano Michelle Cachia Castelletti) and Malotte's Our Father (tenor Brian Cefai). These singers were on excellent form. So was baritone Louis Cassar in Sound the Trumpet from Handel's Messiah. The organ accompaniment version and consequent non-appearance of the trumpet deprived the piece of half its virtuoso attraction. This in turn focused attention on the baritone and he performed his very difficult part with great credit.
There were more works for the whole vocal complement such as the crisp Gloria introduction from Vivaldi's Gloria in D. KV 589 and the cleverly woven Alleluia by Thompson. The quartet Quando corpus morietur from Rossini's Stabat Mater was a very balanced exercise featuring Michelle Cachia Castelletti, Joeanna Scerri (mezzo), Brian Cefai and Louis Cassar. The latter gentlemen joined forces with Marilyn Buhagiar (soprano) and Joeanna Scerri in a Gloria by Mozart, in which the male singers with their more polished singing had an edge over the ladies.
In Adams's beautiful and resounding The Holy City, tenor Brian Cefai dominated in the solo work with some of the latter shared also by Michelle Cachia Castelletti and Louis Cassar, with the chorus rounding off each stanza and of course all forces together in the work's finale. The real finale came with the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah, sung with crispness, decision, precision and overall smooth control which kept in check a certain tendency to accelerate too much at climactic points.