(Photo: Donal Hackett)

Following a busy weekend of events that included recitals, concerts, a workshop and an opera, the Sligo Baroque Festival concluded with a concert dedicated to the music of Vivaldi at the city’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in front of a packed audience. Entitled “Viva Vivaldi!,” the program included a number of orchestral and vocal works by the composer that culminated with a performance of his Gloria RV589.

Dani Espasa Directs a Well-Balanced Program

The concert was overseen by Dani Espasa from the harpsichord, who conducted the Vespres d’Arnadi ensemble, soloists Sarah Shine and Sarah Kilcoyne, the Sligo Baroque Music Festival Chorus and the Drumcliffe Children’s Choir.

The concert began with a lively performance of the “concerto RV537 in C major arranged for oboe and trumpet,” which successfully captured the composer’s characteristic energetic rhythms and melodic immediacy in a wonderfully paced, clear-sounding reading, with the soloists, Carlo Herruz on the historical trumpet and Pere Saragossa on oboe, who sensitively combining to create a beautifully moulded reading.

Mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty, the festival’s artistic director, performed two arias. The first was taken from the motet “Infurore giustissimae irae,” a dramatic sacred work that translates as ‘the fury of the most just wrath.” It was an emotionally forceful presentation, in which the turbulence of the strings from Vespres d’Arnadi drove the piece forward, which Carty fully embraced in an energetic and expressive reading. Everything calmed for the slower B section, allowing Carty to show off the clarity, sensitivity and delicacy of her phrasing, before finishing with the explosive da capo section, in which she passionately attacked her lines, replete with impressive leaps, passages of coloratura and stunning embellishments.

The second aria, “Sovventi il sole,” taken from Vivaldi’s opera “Andromeda liberata,” was a very different piece, reflecting on the delights of a beautiful day after a dark cloud has passed over the sky and the seas have calmed. It was a piece that allowed Carty to show off her technique and interpretative skills to good effect with her beautifully fashioned embellishments, gentle tone and reflective sensitivity.

In between Carty’s two arias was an impassioned presentation of the composer’s cello concerto RV 415 with the soloist Aoife Nic Athlaoich on the cello da piccolo.

Throughout the festival, the local community was fully involved in the events, and not just in an organizational or an administrative capacity but also as active participants.  For this concert, local people were engaged to form the Sligo Baroque Music Festival Chorus, which was rehearsed by Carty especially for the “Gloria.” And prior to its performance there was a delightful presentation of a section from Vivaldi’s “Magnificat et Exultatavit,” performed by the local Drumcliffe Children’s Choir.

Professional & Amateur Musicians Combine to Light up the Cathedral

It was the “Gloria” that brought both the concert and the festival to an end that stood out, not just because it was the most substantial piece of the evening, but because it was the most emotionally charged and musically fulfilling. The energy and tensions generated by the substantial musical force playing to a large, enthusiastic audience created an uplifting atmosphere, to which all the artists responded. From its opening section, “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” the adult and children’s choirs, supported by the excellence of the Vespres d’Arnadi ensemble, seemed empowered and sang with confidence and a sense of meaning. The sound was radiant, joyful and thankful. The Sligo Baroque Music Festival Choir built upon this in the second section, “Et in terra pax hominibus,” with a measured, sensitive rendition in which their neatly balanced voices created emotionally pleasing harmonies and promoted the beauty of the melody. Among the other sections for the choir, the thanksgiving chorus, “Gratis agimus tibi,” captured the attention, which was given a lively, punchy rendition.

The two young soloists, soprano Sarah Shine and mezzo-soprano Sarah Kilcoyne, both of whom are in the early stages of their careers, produced strong performances. In the “Laudamus te,” their voices danced lightly in a beautifully crafted duet, in which both singers showed skills in embellishing the vocal line and developing pleasing passages of coloratura.

Shine sang with confidence, elegance and expressivity. Her rendition of “Domine Deus” was particularly successful, in which she sensitively fashioned her presentation with a gentle, alluring tone that captured her love of God and which the ensemble Vespres d’Arnadi supported with an equally sensitive and graceful accompaniment.

Kilcoyne demonstrated her ability to spin out long, delicate lines in her expressively compelling rendition of “Domine Deus Angus Dei,” in which she successfully captured the beauty of the piece, supported by sensitive singing from the chorus.

“Cum sancto spiritu” brought the soloists and choir together in a fabulous, hair-tingling finale that brought the audience to its feet for a well-deserved ovation.

It was a concert that brought together professional and amateur musicians to produce an evening that embraced the community and visitors alike with a series of Vivaldi’s works that were beautifully presented in a well-balanced program.