Gozo’s Gaulitanus Choir will be giving a concert of sacred music for Lent on Friday the 14th of March, Our Lady of Sorrows day. The concert, which starts at 8.00pm, will be held at the St. Ursola Hall at the Cittadella Centre for Arts, Culture and Crafts and is one of a series organized there during Lent by the Gozo Cultural Council.

The Gaulitanus choir will perform a varied and very interesting programme with works coming from several European countries and from different musical eras and styles. The concert starts with two a cappella works, Ave Maria by Franco-Flemish composer Jacob Arcadelt and Fik Kristu l-mahfra taghna, Bro. Henry’s Maltese setting of German Hans Leo Hassler’s famous chorale. The only Maltese work on the programme is Pietro Paolo Bugeja’s Vexilla Regis (edited by Emmanuele Bartoli / Colin Attard). Composed in 1798, this will be feature quite some of the choir’s soloists, namely sopranos Rita Dimech and Margaret Plant, alto Stephanie Buttigieg, tenor Terry Shaw, baritone Joseph Butigieg and bass Darren Vella.

Particularly suitable for a concert on the day where all Malta commerates Our Lady of Sorrows, is Stabat Mater. This work is adapted to Italian Remo Giazotto’s famous Adagio in G Min based on melodic fragments from his compatriot Tomaso Albinoni by Orwen Arwell Hughes / Colin Attard. The next work in the concert is the famous Dies Irae from the Requiem Mass by the Austrian genius W. A. Mozart.

Two arrangements by the choir’s founder-director Colin Attard follow. These are the Negro spititual Were you there? and the Swedish traditional melody O Lord my God. Both feature bass soloist Darren Vella. The only purely English work on the programme is the duet So Thou liftest Thy divine petition from John Stainer’s famous oratorio The Crucifixion. This will pair tenor Terry Shaw with baritone Joseph Buttigieg.

This sacred concert will also present some French works. The choir’s soprano soloist Rita Dimech will interpret Charles Gounod’s Prière as arranged by C. Attard while the choir will perform Gabriel Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine, Op.11 (edited by John Rutter).

The concert will then end with two works by Giacomo Puccini on the occasion of the 150th anniversary from the Italian composer’s birth. The Ave Maria from Suor Angelica (solo soprano: Rita Dimech) is followed by the Requiem per coro, viola e organo. The latter, which will be performed in its authentic version, will presumably be given its first Gozo performance as is also the case with Fauré’s Cantique and Stainer’s duet.

The Gaulitanus Choir will be conducted by its founder-director, Colin Attard, who will also artistically direct the concert, and accompanied on the organ by its resident accompanist, Stephen Attard. Several of the works will also feature the young musician brothers Jean Noël on the violin and Pierre Louis Attard on the violin / viola.

Entrance for the concert is free.