The Monteverdi Project

Back in August we had our first masterclass with Mro. Marco Mencoboni as part of The Monteverdi Project. Monthly masterclasses were held specializing in baroque music. All this culminated in a baroque concert together with VIBE (Valletta International Baroqie Ensemble) on the 21st of December at St. Gregory’s Church, Żejtun. In this concert, presented by Teatru Manoel, a 14-piece orchestra performed together with The Monteverdi Project Vocal Ensemble under the baton of Mro. Marco Mencoboni.

VIBE performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata BWV 51 “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen”( Exult in God in Everyland) for soprano, trumpet, strings and continuo, with soprano soloist Gillian Zammit and trumpet soloist Richard Thomas, and Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 8 in G Minor “Fatto per la notte di Natale” with soloists Nadia Debono & Sarah Spiteri on violin and Jacob Portelli on cello.

As a vocal ensemble we performed Claudio Monteverdis’ “Lapidabant Stephanum” (from Sacrae Cantiunculae at 3 voices) and “Ch’Ami La Vita Mia”, and ended the concert together with VIBE with a performance of Benigno Zerafa’s “Messa in Pastorale a quattro voci con strumenti” (MS 248) [edited by Geoffrey Thomas]. Zerafa was a Maltese composer and maestro di capella at Mdina Cathedral between 1744 and 1787. In the Mdina Cathedral Archives, from which the latter piece was obtained, we find ninety-one of his surviving sacred compositions.

Looking forward to this January, in which the Monteverdi Vespers are going to be performed as part of the Valletta International Baroque Festival 2018.

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