Hospice Malta recently presented a choral concert at St John’s co-Cathedral in Valletta courtesy of the Cathedral Foundation.
Mozart’s Ave Verum was little short of magic- Albert Storace
As usual, the concert drew a full audience who, besides enjoying the music, showed their support for Hospice Malta in an event which formed part of a worldwide annual celebration in collaboration with other hospice movements.
Taking part in the concert were the Kammerkoret Nesodden/Frogn from Norway, directed by Gunnar Bjerknes-Haugen, and one of Malta’s most active choirs, The New Choral Singers, directed by Robert Calleja, with Timothy James Guntrip at the organ. The first part featured the Norwegian choir, followed in the second part by the Maltese choir and with the choirs singing together in the third part.
It was unfortunate for me that because of a traffic accident somewhere along the bus route, waiting for a bus for more than half an hour meant that I arrived at St John’s too late to enjoy the Norwegian choir’s part of the concert, except for the very last work, listed as a duet between Elisabeth Aukrust and Gunnar Bjerknes-Haugen in Elvind Alnoes’s Julemotett.
This included the full choir’s participation and sounded good enough to make me regret even more not hearing the other pieces which included works by Mozart, Grieg, Lloyd Webber and Tveit and Skeie.
The New Choral Singers began their part of the programme with the Kyrie and Agnus Dei from Perosi’s Missa Benedicamus Domino.
This was sung in the by now established and expected way of this choral group: crispness of phrasing, clarity of diction, balance and cohesion, all of which were maintained throughout.
Another commendable feature is their quick adaptation to style and idiom as was clearly evident in the beautifully flowing You Are The Peace Of All Things Calm by Geoff Nobes.
The choir’s a cappella and thus highly exposed singing is another admirable quality. They were very much up to the job in the highly accomplished singing of the two very different Ave Marias which followed.
The first, by De Victori, was the almost ethereal, while the second was Bartolucci’s even more incisive version, with the choir being joined by the warm, beautiful voice of mezzo-soprano soloist Marianne Andersen. This part of the concert ended with the joyous outburst characterising Ignaz Reimann’s Regina Coeli.
Robert Calleja directed the joint choirs in the final four pieces. Mozart’s Ave Verum was little short of magic, followed by the well-paced and shaped Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (‘Geesou’ please not ‘Yesoo’).
John Rutter’s joyfully optimistic Look At The World preceded one of the ultimate outbursts of praise, the Allelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah. This was a balanced rendition, moving smoothly except when a slightly muddled beginning of a phrase threatened to upset things.
Recuperation was very rapid and the piece moved on in a well-controlled yet easily flowing rendition.
There was no headlong rush as often threatens over-enthusiastic singers and the chorus ended gloriously in the fittingly glorious ambience of St John’s.