Wonderful Pergolesi, baroque pearls mark summer solstice

There could not be two lovelier baroque works to traipse across to Gozo for than Pachelbel’s Canon and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

June 21 marked the summer solstice and I had spent myday deeply involved in a seminar held in Verdala Castle dealing with Valletta’s bid for the titleof 2018 European Capital ofCulture (ECOC).

I had almost chickened out of going to Gozo after a day of intense workshops and heavy brainstorming; however, I made a supreme effort and by 7.15 p.m., with a little help from my friends, was walking through the atmospheric maze of streets that surround St George’s Basilica in Victoria.

There could not be a more flamboyant church interior to set off baroque musical gems than San Ġorġ with its magnificent bronze baldachin which reflects and complements Bernini’s barley sugar columned masterpiece in St Peter’s.

Conducted by Mro Joseph Vella, the small string ensemble was made up of well known members of the Malta Philharmonic and friends plus Maria Frendo, playing a spanking new harpsichord, accompanied Gianluca Alonzi; described as a ‘sopranista’ and Roberto Colavalle; described as a ‘contraltista’ in one of the most beautiful and, more significantly, most moving sacred musical dialogues ever devised; the Stabat Mater, a sequence that is a contemplation of the Blessed Virgin’s desolation and sorrow on the death of her son, Our Lord Jesus Christ .

There have been a great number of Stabats composed since including a lovely Dvorak one and an even more beautiful Rossini one however the Pergolesi remains, in its relative simplicity, far and away, the most emotionally charged of them all.

I find it hard to forgetthe impact of the devastatingly lovely quando corpus morietur which concludes the sequence before the kaleidoscope of Amen’s seals it. It was nothing short of ethereal.

This was the first but I hope not the last time I will be listening to this work sung by two male singers. To describe them as countertenors would be not quite accurate as both gentlemen sing in the Cappella Sistina choir at the Vatican and apparently their ability to sing the soprano and contralto range is one that very seldom and almost miraculously happens (or doesn’t) to a man during puberty.

Of course it takes great training to reach a flawless B flat without going falsetto. The soloists’ voices were always true in their purity and strength in addition to their dramatic impact which made the interpretation of this lovely work simply unforgettable.

I really don’t think I would ever wish to listen to the Pergolesi performed in any other way. I also hope that this will mark an even greater cooperation with one of the most celebrated choirs in Europe the origins of which are lost in the mists of time but whose musical ancestry is second to none.

I love the new harpsichord with its depiction of Apollo and the Muses on the inside flap. Having a harpsichord on hand makes the performance of these baroque gems possible and opens up an entirely new repertoire.

In fact, one of the things that I as representative of the Manoel Theatre had announced during the ECOC seminar earlier that day was the establishment of a baroque festival as from January 2013 which, if nurtured properly, will reach its apogee by 2018 if and when Valletta is voted European Capital of Culture.

Irrespective of this development, the Victoria International Arts Festival organisers have long recognised how popular the baroque idiom is in today’s cultural mix and have, with the acquisition of this lovely transposable instrument, now made baroque music performed both with modern or baroque pitched instruments possible.

Intrinsically, Malta and Gozo both are, architecturally and artistically, baroque creations. We live and breathe baroque and celebrating this incredibly rich heritage in music is but a natural progression.

Our balconies, doorways, churches, festoons, bands, festas and celebrations are all derived from the curved excesses of the baroque; a word which, by the by, is derived for the Portuguese name for a misshapen pearl.

Not grasping this heritage with both hands and celebrating it would be sheer folly.