Sacred music
Sacred music by Ferdinando and Giuseppe Camilleri
Joseph Aquilina and Charles Vella Zarb, tenors; Alfred Camilleri, baritone;
Coro Bel Canto;
Malta Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Hermann Farrugia Frantz
St John’s Co-Cathedral
This was a worthy revival of some very beautiful sacred music composed by Ferdinando Camilleri (1859-1942) and his son Giuseppe (1903-1976). The latter was born in the same year when Pope Pius X’s famous Motu Proprio regulating music for the Catholic liturgy sounded the death knell for sacred music as had developed in many countries, foremost among them our islands.
The style had become ‘too operatic’ and, to many, this smacked of too much show and was barely spiritual or uplifting in essence. Purist-minded reformers yearned for sobriety and restraint.
Much of the latter qualities marked the younger composer’s Andante Religioso, the only work of his performed this evening. Still, this work is nothing but attractive and one of staidly-aesthetic beauty rendered even more effective because of a climactic moment after which it gently fades away.
Giuseppe Camilleri’s hand is also involved in the arrangement of his father’s fine and rather compact O Salutaris Hostia, the penultimate and briefest work of the evening, scored for two-voiced children’s choir (female section here) and three-voiced male choir.
Spanning from 1882 to 1899, the rest of the works performed, which were by Ferdinando Camilleri, were thus pre-Motu Proprio and in the full blaze typical of church music prevalent at the time. Congregations gloried in listening to a combination of fine solo voices, chorus and orchestra, and of course this revival was very apt in the sumptuous ambience of St John’s.
In the Kyrie (1885), tenor Joseph Aquilina was in good form in the solo sequences and with the choir. The latter, after an almost hesitant sliding entry, settled well throughout the evening, bar one or two occasions when an over-enthusiastic tenor or two could be heard above the others.
The major work of the evening was an extended, six-movement Gloria (1882) which appropriately starts with a very catchy and festive motif. All three soloists took part here and generally fared well. Direction was on the whole well-paced while mindful of dynamic changes, contrasts and overall interpretation.
However, there was a point in the Domine Deus when even powerful solo voices were almost completely drowned out as the brass was too strong.
In Laudate Pueri (1899), the solo work was shared by the three soloists, with tenor Charles Vella Zarb and baritone Alfred Camilleri also in a duet.
Most of the scoring for chorus is often separate: for males and, where originally for children, sung very smoothly by the females. This hymn of praise is beautiful with the text of the psalm skilfully reflected in the music.
After the performance of the deeply religious O Salutaris Hostia, the last work on the programme was the Te Deum composed in 1890.
The very comparatively long, familiar text set for three soloists and male chorus is very compact. It progressed with a kind of graceful ease with solo sections, duets and exchanges with chorus, and made one wish it would not come to an end.
The concert was held to mark the first centenary of the creation of the independent Maltese Province of the Order of Franciscans Minor. Minister Provincial Fr Sandro Overend said a few words of thanks and announced the encore, which was Giuseppe Camilleri’s Confitebor Tibi (Psalm 9). It featured tenor Aquilina, baritone Camilleri, chorus and orchestra.
The composer was Maestro di Cappella at Sliema’s Franciscan Minor parish of the Sacro Cuor, one of many such posts he held all over Malta and Gozo.