The joint concert of impressive Sacred Choral Music by the Elysian Singers and the St Paul Choral Society on Saturday 5 April drew a sizeable and enthusiastic crowd at St. Paul’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral. The London-based group, in Malta with some 22 members, performed works by Gerald Finzi (1901-1956), Josquin Des Prez (1450-1521) and John Ireland (1879-1962).

Conducted by Sam Laughton, the Elysians opened the concert with Finzi’s God is gone up, a hymn of praise written in 1951 for a St. Cecilia’s Day Service, which immediately stamped the choir’s expertise and command of the musical idiom, confirming the group’s reputation as “one of the best amongst chamber choirs”. From the relatively modern repertoire the Elysians moved to a sixteenth century “Netherlandish” work, the beautiful Missa “pange lingua”, one of Des Prez’s 18 reliably attributed masses, probably composed around 1515, a few years before the composer’s death. The choir clearly excelled in this difficult masterpiece, with a very secure and polished performance of this four-part mass. A span of 400 years brought the audience to John Ireland’s Greater love hath no man, composed in 1912, for choir and organ, when Ireland was organist in London, at St. Luke’s in Chelsea, and concluded the first part of the Elysians’s performance. The biblical text is taken from the Song of Solomon, the Gospel of John and some letters of Peter and Paul. The Elysians’s displayed a remarkable sense of discipline and ability to perform this beautiful anthem in a balanced manner, the lovely soprano voice soaring above the other supporting voices.

The St Paul Choral Society, conducted by Hugo Agius-Muscat, chose works by Randall Thompson (1899-1984), John Stainer (1840-1901), Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) and Jiri Ropek (1922-2005), performed in that order. Thompson’s Alleluia, arguably his most popular work, composed in 1940, is an anthem for unaccompanied SATB chorus, the text based on the single word, Alleluia. As the composer himself explained, the lento tempo mark on the score reflects his sadness for the Nazi occupation of France, and consequently “the music of this particular Alleluia could not be made to sound joyous”. The choir handled the anthem sensitively throughout, apart from a mild hesitant entry towards the end of the piece. God so loved the world, another a cappella work from Stainer’s The Crucifixion, was beautifully sung, as was the Renaissance motet Sicut Cervus, a perennial favourite and one of the more well-known works by Palestrina, evoking the contemplative yearning of the soul for God by its sublime harmony. The choir was definitely at home here and the motet’s lovely flowing melody was elegantly handled. Ropek’s Salve regina, probably in its first performance in Malta, did not disappoint, for the choir pulled the piece off splendidly well.

The two choirs joined forces for the final three pieces, consisting of works by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) and Charles Hubert Parry (1848-1918). Bruckner’s Locus iste, composed in 1869 for a cappella chorus, is a sensitively beautiful piece which was sung “without reproach”, to borrow a phrase from the text: irreprehensibilis est. It was followed by Rachmaninoff’s Bogoróditse Dyévo (Birthgiver of God, Virgin), redolent with the contemplative atmosphere evoking Mary as the mother of God, which was beautifully sung, provoking a stilled hush at the Pro-Cathedral until the end of the work. Parry’s I was glad, with its rising crescendo leading to its fitting peak, was a delight to hear; a masterful interpretation and an excellent way to end the evening.

Elisabeth Conrad and Hugo Agius-Muscat added lustre to a successful evening by their performance on the newly-restored organ. The sizeable audience left St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral conscious of having assisted in a warming choral happening.