This year’s edition of the Victoria International Arts Festival ended with a grand concert at the basilica of St George, Victoria. For this closing event, its artistic director Joseph Vella composed Sounds of Celebration for brass ensemble.

The work’s premiere was performed by members of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO). Written for horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, timpani and percussion, the work came across as jubilant and highly energetic. It projected a certain diversity of festive moods accentuated by crisply decisive playing, which rounded off the work with a full triumphant blast.

The MPO was in fine fettle in the two highly contrasting works which followed. Dvorák’s Ninth Symphony From the New World is one long yearning for the old world and more specifically the composer’s beloved Bohemia.

It remains a fresh, charming and often moving experience to listen to this music. It alternates so swiftly in mood: from powerful outbursts to tenderly charming episodes and with boundless energy contrasting with deep reflection, all of which were all very clearly evoked by the players.

Here and there the brass section tended to be a tot too powerful but was rapidly reined in, otherwise all forces were generally well-balanced. The overall feeling at the end was one of great satisfaction with the work’s reading.

Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms were having their Gozo premiere; they had been premiered in Malta sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s, with Vella then directing the Akkademja Choir and Laudate Pueri Choir.

This time, the same director and the Laudate Pueri Choir joined forces with London’s Cantum Barbum, which of course, was sung in Hebrew. It is in part a ravishingly beautiful and lyrical work, the lyricism standing out in the second and third movements. The opening movement is more forceful and extremely energetic.

What appears to be a chaotic situation with various sections apparently moving along divergent paths, is just a richly woven tapestry of sound, with often pungent harmonics but linked together by the text. Exotic dissonance, aggressive declamation and lyrical smoothness all came together to produce a very exciting sound world.

The well-prepared singers were very much up to the difficult job of never losing their way. Counter-tenor Alastair Ross sang the most prominent solo (Psalm 131) while other solo contributions were made by soprano Maria Frendo, alto Antoinette Camilleri, tenor Joseph Mercieca and baritone Edmund Saddington.

All those involved must be very proud of this performance.