Music – Musique de la Chambre du Roi at the Court of Versailles
Sarah Spiteri and Pablo Zapico will be bringing to life an exciting interpretation of music written for viola da gamba, which adapts itself beautifully to the baroque viola due to its similar range and texture.
Prior to the 20th century phenomenon of the revival of baroque instruments, the viola da gamba was an obsolete instrument that vanished in favour of the more powerful baroque violins, violas and cellos.
Today at 7.30pm, Palazzo Parisio, Naxxar.
Theatre – La conversion di un cavallo. Tableaux Vivants da Caravaggio
Based on the ‘tableaux vivants’ technique, La Conversione di un Cavallo is a work of great visual impact and yet of extreme simplicity. Before the viewers’ eyes, 23 of the best Caravaggio’s canvasses are composed by the actors’ bodies with the help of some minimal elements, such as draped fabrics of varied colours and texture and other everyday objects.
Just one stream of light brightens up the scene, working as an imaginary frame. The changes are all ‘en plain air’ and rhythmically punctuated by Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi and Sibelius’s music.
This work was born in 2006, thanks to an educational project by the Luigi Vanvitelli Faculty of Architecture. After its first outcome, its scenic strength was clear, and since then it has seen many different forms. It has been performed at the Museum of Capodimonte on more than one occasion, in the 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions of the Maggio dei Monumenti festival and all around Italy in museums, galleries and squares.
Ludovica Rambelli was invited by the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples to conduct a workshop on the Tableaux Vivants theme. Together with Dora De Maio, they put back on stage again the work on Caravaggio. Using the same technique, the following year they also presented the performance Salvi per Miracolo, a work inspired by the votive shrine of Neapolitan devotion.
Both performances, staged at the Academy as part of the L’Accademia Svelata review, were guests in 2011, as well as the Maggio dei Monumenti, of Benevento Città Spettacolo.
Tomorrow at 7.30 and 9pm, church of St Mary Magdalene, Valletta.
Music – Angela Hewitt Recital
With a wide-ranging repertoire and frequent appearances in recital and with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia, Angela Hewitt is also an award-winning recording artist whose performances of Bach have established her as one of the composer’s foremost interpreters.
Friday at 7.30pm, Archaeology Museum, Valletta.
Music – Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Malta’s Catholic tradition across the ages has resulted in the commission of a vast amount of musical compositions to be played during the major events of the Church’s calendar namely, Christmas, Easter and the feasts that honour different saints. However, only a small number of these works by Maltese composers became part of the staple repertoire which are still considered irreplaceable, particularly in village feasts.
The musical scores that fell into oblivion and relegated to the archives were brought back to life in the 1970s when they were edited and performed. This project revealed a number of composers who had been previously unknown.
The programme, presented by ViBE, offers the works of four composers. The two motets by anonymous composers are extant at the Mdina Archives and were edited by the late Joseph Vella in the early 1970s. They are flanked by Vella’s Sonata for 3 violins and Girolamo Abos’ exquisite Stabat Mater.
Saturday at 8pm, Ta’ Ġieżù church, Valletta.
Music – Under a Different Sky
Nick and Leonid Vintskevich have a long-standing creative relationship with Steve Kershaw. Just after the turn of the millennium, Kershaw’s critically acclaimed Stekpanna trio found themselves jamming with the Vintskeviches at a jazz festival in Finland, and the deep mutual admiration of that night grew into the ensemble performing at the Three Palaces Festival.
Between them, Leonid, Steve and Nick have played with some of the world’s finest exponents of jazz, including Lionel Hampton, Slide Hampton, Elvin Jones, Evan Parker, Jamie Cullum, Bill Champlin and Eric Marienthal, and at some of the most prestigious venues and festivals: the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland; the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in the US; Havana Jazz Festival in Cuba; London Jazz Festival in England; Ronnie Scott’s Club in England; Hermitage Jazz Festival in Russia; and Jazz à Vienne in France, among many others.
The Vintskevich & Kershaw Trio’s recent album Under a Different Sky was one of Jazzviews’ Albums of the Year in 2016. The recording also entered the Europe Jazz Media Chart as one of the 13 albums most listened to in European Jazz publications’ editorial rooms in March 2017.
Saturday at 9pm, Archaeology Museum, Valletta.
Music – Congregation at Mdina
Music sessions by Ray Lee, organised in collaboration with the Mdina and Rabat local councils.
Sunday at 10am, noon, 2 and 4pm, Mdina.