What a pity that the lovely parish church of St Augustine, Valletta, was not packed to the ceiling for some of the best choral singing I have heard for a while.
Welsh choirs are renowned for their lovely singing, and the Cardiff Polyphonic Choir flies the flag very high.
The concert began with some brief works, the first three of which were directed by guest conductor Ian Peter Bugeja.
Bugeja is usually more associated with orchestral ensembles, but he certainly knows his stuff in the choral genre.
It was in Bruckner’s Locus Iste that the choir provided ample evidence of how disciplined and homogeneous it is, singing crisply and with a deep commitment that proved irresistible.
The choir continued with one of those magical pieces by Fauré, the Cantique de Jean Racine, projecting a great serenity and well-being, one would never want the music to stop.
Likewise, in Grieg’s Ave Maris Stella and the superbly crafted hymn Verleih uns Frieden, by Mendelssohn, with its undoubtedly Bachian influence. A pleasant departure from the usual Camille Saint-Saëns was the latter’s profoundly spiritual Ave Verum Corpus.
Neil Ferris conducted the last two of these five introductory pieces, in some of which there was organ accompaniment by David Geoffrey Thomas.
The organist had a vitally important part in the evening’s main work, Fauré’s Requiem, a composer I can never have enough of.
This magnificent, subtle work is more a serene delivery from earthly woe than fear of death. Yes, of course there are moments when there is a bit of an explosion in the Dies Irae which, like all the work’s sections, is not at all long drawn-out.
The texture of the music was rendered in the finest possible way. The smallish male section held their own, well-balanced with the often ethereally-sounding females. Not a single, individual voice breaking loose, it was a continuous journey of peace and even joy.
Soprano soloist Alison Lang was plain marvellous, especially in the Pie Jesu. I heard baritone Gilbert Delicata for the first time, and he has a promising sound to his voice, warmest and most pleasant in his middle and lower registers.
With a lot of hard work, he would be able to sing with more feeling, polish and heart. The baritone’s finest moment in this work is the Libera me Domine, which is echoed by the choir.
The work ended in a very personal Faurean manner, with In Paradisum inserted in the proper part of the Requiem Mass, a section dominated mainly by the women. Closing one’s eyes, it was not so difficult to feel in the company of angels.
Three very welcome encores were announced. The first, the traditional Ar Hyd y Nes (All Through the Night), which was followed by Cennin Aur (Daffodils) by Mansel Thomas.
The last work was the rousing hymn Tydi a Roddaist (Thou Gavest) by Arwel Hughes, where the wide-ranging, dynamic versatility of the choir was amply demonstrated.