Concert
Les Paladins Ensemble
Manoel Theatre

Now this was a super evening of aptly named treasures of Italian baroque music. It was also the right occasion for the public inauguration of the Manoel’s recently acquired Jacques Braux 1998 harpsichord from Paris which was presented to the press a few days before. The evening was one musical thrill from beginning to end and the Les Paladins Ensemble, so superbly directed by Jérôme Correas, left no stone or detailed unturned to produce a wonderful authentic sounding performance. As he was to say at the end of the evening, the ensemble thoroughly enjoyed the Manoel’s ambience for musicians performing baroque music composed in the very same years when the theatre had just opened its doors to the public back in the 1730s.

The ever-popular Vivaldi featured in the concert’s first half, beginning with the Concerto in D minor for two violins and basso continuo, Opus 3, No. 11 from l’Estro Armonico. The leaders of the first and second violins, Juliette Roumailhac and Marion Korkmaz respectively, took the violin solo parts in a highly accomplished rendering of the three-movement work. The ensemble includes the rather unwieldy theorbo in its line-up and was augmented by the organo protativo built by Robert Buhagiar and specially loaned for the occasion and played also in the evening’s other works. Its inclusion in the gentle Siciliana in the largo e spiccato added to the rich texture of the sound in this crisply lithe rendering of the concerto.

The concert continued with the motet Nisi Dominus, RV 608. Vivaldi set the relatively short text of Psalm 126 in nine movements including the concluding Amen. It was sung by mezzo-soprano Sophie Harmsen who has an amazing vocal agility, breath-control, makes short shrift of flourishes, embellishments and devilishly difficult runs. The different tempi of the various movements allowed for the exploitation of these qualities. On the other hand, sections like No.2, Vanum est vobis marked largo, No. 4, Cum dederit delectis suis omnium marked andante and No. 6, Beatus vir qui implevit also marked andante gave the singer more opportunity to express her deep musicality in these more reflective and not at all showy movements. Her diction and articulation was clear all around and the balance with the ensemble maintained throughout.

One could not but look forward to the second part of the concert when Ms Harmsen was joined by soprano Dorothée Lorthiois in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater which literally consumed the composer’s last drops of energy and life, but what a great work it is. Diverse and rich in invention, it provides a wide range of feelings and emotion it affords to the two singers. They were perfectly balanced and complementary, with more than half the 13 movements being duets. The soprano has two solos and the mezzo has three and Pergolesi seems to have allotted more energetic, almost blustery singing to the mezzo in the solos. Yet a no less than assertive but more staid scoring is reserved for the soprano in hers. Both aspects of this kind of singing were dealt with expertly and respectively by the singers. They were equally accomplished in the duets, the orchestral backing was buoyant and the entire work was performed to full satisfaction. It was reflected in the audience’s very warm appreciation as a result of which the Amen was encored.