Monteverdi: Missa In Illo Tempore & Salve Regina

This is a liturgical Mass in the Tridentine Rite, not a concert.

Programme

Before the Entrance

Nicolas Gombert (1495-1560)

In illo tempore, loquente Jesu (c. 1539) Antwerp (Motetta quinque vocum, liber primus)

Ordinary

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

Kyrie, Gloria - Missa in illo tempore (1610) Venice (Messa e Vespri della Beata Vergine)

Offertorium

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)

Mihi autem nimis (mot 249) (Offertoria totius anni, pars secunda, Rome 1593)

Ordinary

Claudio Monteverdi

Sanctus - Missa In illo tempore

Benedictus - Missa In illo tempore

Agnus Dei

Claudio Monteverdi

Agnus Dei I and II - Missa In illo tempore 

Communion

Claudio Monteverdi

Adoramus te Christe (6 voices) (1620) Venice (Motet, first book)

Conclusion

Claudio Monteverdi

Salve Regina (third tone) (1641) SV 285 Venice (Selva morale e spirituale)

Performers

KorMalta Chamber:

Alexandra Antoinette Camilleri Gambin

Daniela Briffa

Bianca Simone

Eduardo Hurtado Rampoldi

Miguel Rosales

Albert Buttigieg

Director:  Riccardo Bianchi

Propers sung by Ansgar Gescher 

Programme Notes

Claudio Monteverdi’s Missa in illo tempore (1610) occupies a singular place in the history of sacred music, standing at the threshold between the Renaissance and the emerging Baroque. Conceived across Mantua, Venice, and Rome, it reflects both the cosmopolitan ambitions of its composer and the intricate network of patronage that shaped his career. As maestro di cappella at Vincenzo Gonzaga’s Mantuan court, Monteverdi was immersed in one of early seventeenth-century Europe’s most cultured environments, collaborating, in spirit if not in person, with luminaries such as Torquato Tasso and Rubens. Mantua was decisive for Monteverdi’s development in madrigal and opera, as exemplified by Orfeo (1607).

Amid personal and professional trials, including the death of his wife, Monteverdi turned decisively toward sacred composition, dedicating this Mass to Pope Paul V. Its structure is rigorously modeled on Nicolas Gombert’s motet In illo tempore, employing ten contrapuntal themes in the prima prattica, yet the Et Incarnatus and Benedictus reveal flashes of the expressive freedom characteristic of the nascent Baroque. Liturgically, the Mass unfolds with solemnity and devotion, guiding the faithful through the Kyrie, Gloria, and beyond with clarity of text and devotional intensity.

Performed today within a Baroque festival, the Missa in illo tempore offers both a historical and spiritual experience: it is at once a culmination of Renaissance polyphonic art and a harbinger of Baroque expressivity, reminding us of music’s enduring power to elevate the liturgy and the soul.

Biographies

KorMalta

KorMalta is the Maltese national choir, currently composed of an Ensemble of five full-time choristers and seven casuals to form a professional chamber choir directed by its artistic and musical director, Riccardo Bianchi.

Since its inception in 2018, KorMalta has consistently worked towards professionalisation of choral singing, meeting even the most demanding and the widest type of choral repertoire: from a cappella polyphony to baroque, up to operatic symphonic productions. Besides its standing appointments with the Valletta International Baroque Festival the Malta International Spring Festival and Malta International Arts Festival and continuous collaboration with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the choir has often been invited to perform abroad at prestigious festivals such as the Illica Festival, and Orchestras like Orchestra Toscanini of Parma and Sinfonica Menotti in Milan, as well as in collaboration with several visual artists, actors and dancers, in an eclectic mix of innovative performances, due to its musical eclecticism and propensity to contribute to a multidisciplinary approach to the performing arts. These efforts altogether consistently allow KorMalta to develop its repertoire as well as its educational and outreach initiatives further through local and international tutoring and masterclasses.

Riccardo Bianchi 

Riccardo Bianchi, a choral and orchestral conductor from Varese Italy, currently resides in Malta, where he serves as the Artistic Director of KorMalta – Malta’s National Choir since its founding. He is the conductor of the Sacro Monte Orchestra of Varese since 2016. 

He holds diplomas in Vocal Music and Choral Conducting as well as Orchestral Conducting, with advanced degrees in Contemporary Music and Renaissance Music. He was awarded the “Diploma di Merito” in polyphony by the Chigiana Academy in Siena. Additionally, he graduated with honours in Philosophy.  

As an orchestral conductor, Riccardo has led esteemed ensembles such as the Toscanini Orchestra of Parma, the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, the London Classical Soloists, the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra of Milan, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Orchestra, the Virtuosi Brunensis, the Sinfonica Menotti of Milan, the Bacau State Philharmonic, and the State Hermitage Orchestra of St. Petersburg.  

He fondly and gratefully remembers his mentors Guido Donati, Vivien Bernasconi, Pippo Molino, Dario Tabbia, Antonino Fogliani, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Roberto Gabbiani, and Diego Fratelli, cherishing their guidance as a student and their friendship as a colleague.