I was privileged to be present for the celebratory concert given by the Laudate Pueri Choir of St George's basilica, Gozo, at Les Invalides, the burial site of France's war heroes in the heart of Paris.

The concert of Maltese sacred music was given in the context of French celebrations marking the country's presidency of the EU.

Education and Culture Minister Dolores Cristina introduced the Gozitans as Malta's "finest choir", a citation that was echoed in the French language by Vicki Ann Cremona, Malta's amiable ambassador to France. By the end of the concert, the many distinguished guests from both France and Malta who headed an audience that filled the sacrarium to capacity joined the echo with one excited, and in the Maltese case, "proud" voice.

In the first part of the concert, Prof. Joseph Vella, the Gozitan composer who invariably raises Malta's cultural name to ever new heights, directed Giuseppe Balzano's Baroque music from the Mdina Cathedral archives.

Then Rev. George J. Frendo, the director of the Laudate Pueri, conducted Mro Vella's music composed specifically for the Gozitan choir.

Soloists Maria Frendo, Gillian Zammit, Antoinette Camilleri and Joseph Mercieca, accompanied by the three Maltese and French instrumentalists, lavished spiritual pleasure on all, but especially Dr Frendo with her refined solo rising from within the Choir's superb performance of the Agnus Dei (Vella's Missa Brevis) which preceded the last item, the touchingly appropriate Riesaq il-Lejl Mulejja, Dun Karm's prayer for the end of the day put to music by his contemporary Giuseppe Caruana.

As one of the members from both sides of the Maltese Parliament who attended the concert said afterwards, it always feels great when Malta gets well represented abroad.