The Valletta Baroque Festival continues today with (Not) So Italian Concertos by the Baroque ensemble Les Contre-Sujets.

The concert, being held at noon today at the Ta’ Ġieżu church in Valletta, will feature music by François Couperin (1668-1733), Jacques-Christophe Naudot (1690-1762), Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) and Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) alongside works by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741).

The musicians forming Les Contre-Sujets are Samuel Rotsztejn (recorder), Mathias Ferré (viola da gamba), Takahisa Aida (harpsichord), Maya Enokida (violin) and Paul Monteiro (violin). The programme sees Couperin’s Troisième Ordre, L’impériale − Les Nations, Naudot’s Concerto in G Major for recorder, two violins and basso continuo, Op. 17 No. 5, Vivaldi’s Concerto in A Minor for recorder, two violins and basso continuo, RV 108, Buxtehude’s Sonata in G Major for two violins, viola da gamba and basso continuo, BuxWV 271 and Telemann’s Trio Sonata No. 5 for recorder, violin and continuo in A minor from Essercizii musici, TWV 42:a4.

Les Contre-Sujets

Later, the concert Sacred Vivaldi will be held at the Collegiate church of St Paul in Rabat at 7.30pm. It will feature La Serenissima, the UK’s most dynamic voice of Italian baroque music.

Vivaldi composed all the works of this concert for the famous Venetian foundling institution, the Ospedale della Pietà, where the female musicians, known as the figlie di coro, performed them for international audiences.

Tomorrow there will be another two concerts.

The first one, German Celebrity Composers: From Concerto to Opera, will be held at Verdala Palace in Buskett, at noon. It will feature Les Contre-Sujets, who will this time perform music by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784) next to renowned works by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and Telemann.

The second concert of the day is titled The Godfather, which will once again star La Serenissima. This concert, being held at the Manoel Theatre at 5.30pm, will see the use of various instruments such as oboes, bassoons, trumpets, timpani, and strings as the ensemble performs works by the finest composers of the baroque era such as Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755), Giuseppe Brescianello (1690-1758), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758).

For more information, visit www.vallettabaroquefestival.mt. For tickets, log on to kultura.mt.