11 - 29 January 2023
Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Artistic Director
The 11th Edition of the Valletta Baroque Festival is underway and it is as eclectic as ever. After two agonizingly long years of postponements due to the pandemic we now have a splendiferous programme that had been in accumulation since 2019. Besides the time honoured baroque composers; Bach, Handel and the rest of the sacred band’s music played on baroque instruments we have transcriptions and paraphrases for piano, wind instruments, saxophones, organ and even a rock band. I wanted to highlight the enormous versatility of the baroque idiom and its mass appeal. Above all the festival’s strength lies in the wonderful baroque settings that one finds in Valletta and the Maltese archipelago; a precious legacy that each and every one of us Maltese treasure…
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PROGRAMME 2023
11 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Valletta Baroque Ensemble and Kor Malta.
Venue: St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta
The Dettingen Te Deum and other Handelian hits
The Dettingen Te Deum was written in commemoration of the last battle led by an English king; specifically, George II in 1743. This concert will feature two other Handel masterpieces;
Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 11, Zadok the Priest, and Eternal Source of Light Divine.
12 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Bach Cantatas, BWV131, 13, 106
Alia Mens dir. Olivier Spilmont
Venue: Parish Church of the Annunciation, Tarxien
Eloquentia
Bach begins the creation of what he judges to be the core of his work with his cantatas. He was always concerned for his works to be organised through games of symmetry and alternation creating a balanced structure to the expression of his thoughts.
13 January 2023 | 4:00pm
Avi Avital (mandolin)
Venue: Bibliotheca, Valletta
Bach on Mandolin
The first mandolin soloist to be nominated for a classical Grammy, Avi Avital has been compared to Andres Segovia for his championship of his instrument and to Jascha Heifitz for his incredible virtuosity. Avital is a driving force behind the reinvigoration of the mandolin repertoire.
13 January 2023 | 8:00pm
BWV1066-1069
Les Passions de l’Âme
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
Bach - The Four Orchestral Suites
Similar to the set of the six Brandenburg concertos, the orchestration of the four orchestral suites varies somewhat, highlighting different instruments. They are very rarely played together and consist of an ‘ouverture’ followed by a set of dance movements in the French style.
14 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Accademia del Piacere
Venue: Archaeology Museum, Valletta
Diálogos de viejos y nuevos sones
This concert approaches baroque instruments through roots music that like flamenco is a constant growth of new branches from the trunk of tradition, a constant interaction between the new and the old.