Albert Storace finds a performance by La Sainte Folie Fantastique to be one of the highlights so far of the first Valletta International Baroque Festival.
The Valletta International Baroque Festival marches on with an increasing momentum of classy fare presented at venues that offer the perfect backdrop for baroque music, the kind that Valletta can provide.
Great teamwork, rapport and warmth of approach easily wore on the audience filling the church
La Sainte Folie Fantastique from France gave a delightful recital at the equally delightful All Souls/St Nicholas church at the deep end of Merchants Street.
At the ensemble’s core are violinist Jérôme van Waerbeke, Lucile Boulanger (viola da gamba) and Arnaud De Pasquale at portative organ and harpsichord. For this recital there was also another violinist, Sandrine Dupé.
Great teamwork, rapport and warmth of approach easily wore on the audience filling the church. The recital was dominated by various Sonate a Tre by, among others, Corelli, performed to great effect. This was particularly true of the more popular N.4 in F from Op.5. Of Purcell’s sonatas, some of which he referred to as sonnate, only N. VII in E minor and N. IX in C minor were performed. His lovely Fantasia in three parts found very worthy interpreters on this evening, as did his A New Ground: Here the Deities Approve, from Welcome all the Pleasures.
Also by Purcell was Arnaud De Pasquale’s fine harpsichord solo of The Hornpipe in E minor, taken from The Old Bachelor. Perhaps much less familiar here is Christopher Simpson’s music, a man better known as a theoretician, whose Division on a Ground for viola da gamba and harpsichord saw a much-acclaimed Lucile Boulanger at her virtuoso best.
In some works De Pasquale played the harpsichord, in others the organ and in others still he alternated between one and the other.
Three works by Nicola Matteis, who could have been Neapolitan, perhaps had their first airing in this country. Matteis flourished from circa 1670 to 1700 and wrote some really beautiful music, not so easy to perform.
Jérôme van Waerbeke, often the dominant violinist, performed with great accomplishment (with the backing and support of the other musicians) the Sonata a Tre in G, repeating this later in the Sonata in D. Sandrine Dupé had her chance to dazzle with her virtuoso playing of Matteis’s Fantasia for solo violin, and that she did to much acclaim as well. The audience would not leave the church before an encore was performed, and the ensemble obliged with a Ciaccona by Corelli.