This season's flagship event for the St Paul's choir directed by Hugo Agius Muscat was a concert of sacred music by Gounod held at St John's Co-cathedral on 21 November. This being the eve of the feast of St Cecilia, patron saint of music and musicians, it was most fitting that the central work was the composer's Messe Solenelle de Saint Cécile, so called because it was first performed on the feast of the saint in 1855.

The Messe Solenelle was composed in 1855 in this Mass. The persuasive melodies, soft-toned chords and stinging harmonic surprises have an urgency that make the work immediately attractive. The music does not make great demands on singing technique either for the choir or for the soloists. Both choir and soloists - soprano Rosabelle Bianchi, tenor Charles Vincenti and bass Albert Buttigieg - displayed a mellow confident manner that marked them as top-class singers. There was spring in the rhythms and a finesse about the chording, coupled with a tendency to attack hard and build up to stirring climaxes. The stiller moments had a rather fine tonal quality. The orchestra, led by violinist James Zammit, complemented the choir and was under control except for the brass section that at times tended to overpower the voices in places where it should have kept a purely accompanying role, not to mention an unfortunate mis-timed entry and at least one instance when the horn was completely out of tune.

Gounod's love for brass instruments was also apparent in the other works performed during the evening. These included three purely orchestral works. The Judex section from the composer's oratorio Mors et Vita contained music that was inventive and expressive. The Marche Pontificale that has been adopted as the papal anthem was given a rousing performance while there was very little that could be considered spiritual in the very operatic Marche Religieuse. Mezzo-soprano Claire Massa sang the ever-green Ave Maria that Gounod wrote based on one of the preludes by J.S. Bach. Her sensitive singing prevented this very familiar piece from what could have been a hackneyed performance. Massa also found the right balance, between emotion and simplicity in her rendering of the religious song Repentir though, rather unusually for this singer, here her diction lacked her usual clarity.

Choir and orchestra also performed an evening service that consisted in a rendering of the two canticles from the New Testament Bible, the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis. The excellent blend of the vocal lines in these pieces made for the lack of emotion in the score.

Throughout the concert, conductor Hugo Agius Muscat, brought a fine musical judgement to the works being performed.

Cecilia Xuereb