This week sees the beginning of the Valletta Baroque Festival, a celebration of baroque music, both iconic compositions and modern interpretations, in lavish settings including St John’s Co-Cathedral, The Verdala Palace, Palazzo Parisio, and the Manoel Theatre. In 16 venues over a 16-day period (from January 9-25), both soloists and ensembles will showcase the versatility of the baroque idiom in 32 wide-ranging events woven with global influences.

The festival opens with La Giuditta by Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti, 300 years after his death. This five-voice version, performed with Valletta Baroque Ensemble (ViBE), was composed in Naples in 1693 and includes a libretto by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni who commissioned the work.

La Giuditta recounts the biblical story of Judith who courageously saves her people by beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes. It is often considered to be Scarlatti’s finest oratorio, illustrating the composer’s mastery in combining dramatic narrative and richly emotional musical expression.

The festival is a celebration of baroque music.

Also looking east, Combattimento 400 − Claudio Monteverdi meets Abd al-Qādir Marāghī is a concert by a baroque ensemble created in 2000 by conductor and baroque cellist Giordano Antonellito to promote the rediscovery of the great Italian baroque repertoire.

Here, Monteverdi’s 17th-century madrigal Clorinda and Tancredi is interwoven with ancient Sufi music to reframe this classic lovers’ play in which a Christian knight and a Saracen maiden warrior meet in battle but, with their faces covered by armour, do not recognise one another. Promising a kaleidoscope of sounds, colours, timbres, and emotions, it’s a theatrical journey into the cultural world of the Crusades, with the words and music of Persia and Turkey dating back to medieval times. 

In contrast, Bachianas in the Manoel Theatre adds a jaunty South American flavour. Transcribed for saxophone quartet, this event includes music by Bach and Villa-Lobos, a series of Argentinian Dances by Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) and Astor Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango.

Events will feature both iconic compositions and modern interpretations.

Festival founder and artistic director Kenneth Zammit Tabona also describes how he is very much looking forward to Preludes and Grooves: Bach reimagined with Tenor Madness.

“We have experimented with a little jazz before,” he smiles, “but this year we have invited Sandy Burnett, a classical music presenter on BBC Radio 3, and his trio Tenor Madness to explore Bach’s music with a blend of baroque and jazz. Baroque is quite niche, and we encourage everyone to embrace it by incorporating other genres too.”

BaRock, the explosive festival finale, for example, will include innovative versions of iconic pieces from Bach to Jon Lord and from Vivaldi to Pink Floyd.

We want the experience to be fun- Kenneth Zammit Tabona

“Some of the greatest musicians in the rock-and-roll scene were influenced by the Early Music revival,” explains VIBE Director and violinist Sarah Spiteri.

“A good example is Pachelbel’s Canon in D which has been used far and wide as a basis for songs by Procol Harum, Aerosmith and Maroon 5.”

The festival is taking place in 16 venues over a 16-day period.

“So, yes, the festival includes beautiful oratorios, is aesthetically beautiful, and so on,” continues Zammit Tabona, “but most of all, we want the experience to be fun.”

Another highlight this year is the William Christie 80th Birthday Concert on January 24 at the Manoel. William ‘Bill’ Christie, harpsichordist, conductor and musicologist, was a pioneer in the rediscovery of baroque music over recent decades, with particular expertise in French baroque opera. Within his Orchestre des Arts Florissants, listen out for emerging talent, such as the versatile Thomas Dunford who plays the theorbo, a plucked string instrument in the lute family.

The 32 wide-ranging events will be woven with global influences.

Zammit Tabona is delighted to include musicians of all ages and career stages in the programme, and Dunford, together with the Swiss violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, is also presenting The Mad Lover, a collection of music by violin virtuosos of the era, the tale of a character from the reign of England’s Charles II.

There’s yet more young talent on the violin as Samuel Cutajar juxtaposes the differing styles of Italian and German baroque, and on the piano, as Charlene Farrugia − whose upcoming album, Melita – Piano Music from Malta is set to be released this spring – performs Bach Well-Tempered Clavier − Book 2.

The Sound Explorers, a concert for children by an international wind ensemble of baroque oboes (French ‘hautbois’), taille, baroque bassoon and historical percussion instruments led by Giovanni Battista Graziadio.  Playfully narrated, this story of friendship tells of a land where people play, laugh, live, and love.

Both soloists and ensembles will showcase the versatility of the baroque idiom. Photo: Elisa von Brockdorff

Yet when a thunderous storm sweeps over the land, sounds shatter and chords wobble. And then, someone arrives who sounds so different, foreign and new. Can this newcomer succeed in bringing forth a new harmony?

And as the young audience wonders if the coded message he carries can be deciphered, they are gently being introduced to the world of baroque.

The Valletta Baroque Festival is now in its 13th year.

“From the early days, when there were very few Maltese musicians involved, and those that were included played on contemporary instruments, now as many as 90 per cent of the performers are Maltese which is great,” says Zammit Tabona. It’s certainly a great accolade for the Valletta Baroque Festival which is now in its 13th year.

“My baby has become a teenager,” Zammit Tabona smiles, and I, for one, can’t wait to see the how it continues to develop in future.

For more information, visit festivals.mt/vbf.