This Friday sees the welcome return of the Malta International Organ Festival, a celebration of the organ and its music and a creative journey through some of the country’s richest sacred spaces.

Entering its 11th year, this year’s organ festival presents 10 concerts in churches across Malta and Gozo featuring a host of local and international artists.

The festival opens with a performance by Grammy-nominated US organist Cameron Carpenter, described by Gramophone magazine as “one of the great virtuosos of our time,” at St Paul’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral in Valletta.

Over the following two weeks, the festival will see organists joined by vocalists, brass and woodwind musicians and even an orchestra for the event’s closing concert at Paola’s Basilica of Christ the King on December 7.

“We’re celebrating communities, our heritage and music in the centre of our towns and villages and have the best of the best coming to Malta to entertain us,” said the festival’s founder and artistic director Joseph Lia.

“There are a lot of nice aesthetics – architecture, paintings, carvings and all the art incorporated in these churches – plus the music, which is one of the highest performing art forms.”

Describing organ music being played in churches as “giving an additional dimension to these [church] works of art,” Lia said Malta’s sacred spaces will “come to life with music” throughout the festival.

‘Mega star’

Despite the organ’s long history, the instrument and its repertoire continues to be developed – not least by maverick US organist Carpenter, who made waves with the debut of his self-designed electronic International Touring Organ, the world’s first full-scale portable organ. 

Describing Carpenter as a “mega star... a big name,” Lia stressed the festival was seeking to showcase the wealth of music written for the instrument, pointing to the variety of musical themes explored and the range – and calibre – of musicians coming to perform.

Saturday sees a concert dedicated to improvised variations on Maltese hymns, with performances the following week featuring works by Bach, Piazzola and Puccini.

A Christmas-themed concert takes place on December 2, meanwhile, with an eclectic performance featuring various artists held the following Thursday.

Ancient origins

While a precursor to the organ – utilising waterpower instead of bellows – is thought to date back more than 2,000 years, the earliest version of the modern organ emerged in Europe around the eighth century.

The organ had become a fixture in churches by the 10th century while continuing to see design refinements and improvements through into the early 17th century.

Grammy-nominated organist Cameron Carpenter opens this year’s festival.

By the early 18th century, it had become an important instrument in the arsenal of Baroque composers, particularly Bach (1685-1750), perhaps the most famous proponent of the instrument and composer of the fabulously dramatic Toccata and Fugue in D minor, a work that has become synonymous with the instrument.

Malta’s organs

With a strong Christian tradition, Malta is home to some 130 organs, most of which are housed in churches.

In December last year, a new 4,000-pipe organ was installed in Paola’s Basilica of Christ the King while this year saw the completion of restoration works on the 200-year-old organ housed in Valletta’s St Dominic parish church.

Both organs will feature in this year’s festival, with the Paola organ taking centre stage for the event’s grand finale featuring music for organ and orchestra.

Describing the organ as “the king of the instruments,” paying homage to its “rich tones and colours and grand, majestic power,” Lia noted the festival also sees the inclusion of smaller, more “delicate” organs in churches such as St Mary parish church in Gudja and Valletta’s Jesuit church oratorio.

“Our forefathers crowdfunded our churches with very good organs – some are big romantic organs, some are ancient organs of historic value and there are smaller organs comparable with the size of the space,” said Lia, a baritone singer.

“This is why I started this [the festival], because I was working with organists when living abroad, and they knew that we have such very good organs – so we started discussing the possibility of organising a festival here.”

New concert hall?

While Malta boasts a wealth of sacred spaces to enjoy organ music, Lia would like to see Malta’s capabilities to explore the instrument expanded, stressing the need for a new purpose-built concert hall.

“Something we lack here in Malta is a philharmonic hall with an organ – a secular concert hall like other European countries have,” he said.

While stressing his love of sacred music, explaining he was “born in sacred music, great music,” Lia thinks a new concert hall equipped with an organ could allow him and others to explore a greater range of repertoire.

“As an artistic director, I would be freer to programme more music... there’s not only sacred music, but there’s other music that sometimes involves the organ too,” he said.

However, keen to stress the unique nature of the festival and its performance spaces, Lia encouraged those new to organ repertoire to “come and experience this in our churches.”

“In this stressful world, audiences can come and relax in these places that were built for worship and enjoy this music.”

The Malta International Organ Festival runs from November 22 to December 7. For tickets and a full programme, visit maltainternationalorgan festival.com.