Now that was a luxury: Caravaggio’s St Jerome at one end of the Oratory at St John’s Co-Cathedral and the Beheading of St John at the other end behind the altar.

This choral group sings pretty well, with crisp phrasing and cohesion rather well-maintained

Enough to make one forget everything else, but the purpose was to hear some good music, this time presented by the Anon Ensemble together with the Goldberg (choral) Ensemble, under the direction of Michael Laus from the harpsichord.

After introducing the musicians and the work, the Anon Ensemble (Nadya Debono, Marcelline Agius, violins; Angelica Galea Young, cello) launched into Corelli’s Sonata da Chiesa in G. This was a success story of cohesion and wide experience and was followed by Telemann’s Laudate Jehovam Omnes Gentes in B flat, whose only fault with some is that he was too prolific.

But if all his work were to be like this setting, then play them all, I say! This work featured the Goldberg Ensemble, my first hearing of this choral group which sings pretty well, with crisp phrasing and cohesion rather well-maintained.

Alto Graziella Debattista gave an excellent rendering of two unusual rarities, the first two Handel’s Neun Deutsche Arien. These were Künft’ger eitler Kummer (The Vain Cares of the Future), a larghetto; and Das Żitternde Glänzen der Spielenden Wellen (The shivering gleam of the playful waves), an allegro.

Religious, rather than sacred, these arias carry a strong naturalistic baggage and were sung in aptly contrasting expressive manner and with great feeling, matched by Debono’s violin obbligato playing, with continuo.

The Goldberg Ensemble then sang Fux’s unaccompanied offertory setting Benedixisti Domine Terram Tuam. After an untidy entry by the sopranos, the piece settled quickly into a finely rendered devotional piece, after which Handel returned.

This time it was with two arias from Messiah. Alto sang the solo O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion, in which she manoeuvred very well the difficult runs with admirable agility, always maintaining coherence and clarity.

Soprano Alison Deborah Gatt’s pleasant timbre marked the aria Rejoice, sung with considerable agility too, in an equally difficult piece that needed only a little more effort to sustain more fully the end parts of some phrases. The chorus joined the soprano towards the end of the piece.

This concert concluded with Vivaldi’s only extant setting of the Credo. In four movements, the outer ones are very typical of the composer: boisterous, energetic and melodious. The two inner movements are of a more subdued and devotional nature and details regarding both aspects were properly seen to and provided the right contrasts.

Goldberg and Anon gave a very enjoyable rendering of this work, which ended with the expected happy flourish.