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28 THIS WEEK THIS WEEK CULTURE | TV | FILM CINEMA LISTINGS FOOD | WHAT'S ON Countertenors, humour and a Ba ball: last chance to experience th Baroque Festival next week THE second and last week of the Valletta International Baroque Festival will continue tomorrow right up to Sunday with a full programme of events on a daily basis. January 20 will see a concert at the Manoel Theatre entitled Music from the Habsburg Court, featuring the Consilium Musicum Wien together with soprano Ursula Fiedler, harpsichordist Paul Angerer under the direction of Christoph Angerer. The programme, starting at 19:30, will include music by Benedikt Anton Aufschnaiter, Leopold I, Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Johann Georg Reutter, Joseph I, Johann Joseph Fux and Antonio Caldara. The Concilium Musicum Wien ensemble was established in 1982 by Paul and Christoph Angerer. The aim was to perform music of the 18th century. Over the course of its existence, the ensemble's rep- Die Kolner Akademie Concilium musicum Wien ertoire has expanded in scope to encompass baroque music to dance music of the 19th century. Rare manuscripts from the archives are made to resound again: works by neglected, and in some cases forgotten, composers are presented, and less well-known works by the great classical masters are brought to light. The ensemble plays on valuable original period instruments. On the following day (January 21), one of the world's supreme countertenors, Max Emanuel Cencic, together with soprano Camille Poul and Les Cyclopes orchestra will regale us with a very special concert entitled Bach meets Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, an adaptation by Bach of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. This concert starting at 19:30 will be held at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral. Before his international rise to acclaim, Max Emanuel Cencic first became known as a member of the Max Emanuel Cencic Vienna Boys Choir. Today, his solo career has taken him throughout the main theatres in the world. January 22 will see a very original performance inside the Grand Salon at the National Museum of Archeology entitled Coffee with Venus at 19:30. The Valletta International Baroque Ensemble, together with soprano Claudia Patacca will stage two humorous works namely J.S. Segreti del Settecento concert at the Cathedral Museum in Mdina, Malta Bach's Coffee Cantata BWV211 and F.C. de Blamont's La Toilette de Venus. Bach's Coffee Cantata is essentially a comic opera all about the fashionable addiction to coffee through satirical commentary. Blamont's La Toilette de Venus is an example of an extended French cantata and structured around six soprano arias, some with recitatives. Conjuring up scenes of delightful Boucher paintings. On January 23, German orchestra Die Kölner Akademie will perform the third concert featuring works by French baroque heavyweight composer Rameau at the Manoel Theatre at 19:30. Airs Enchantées will be a musical tribute to the operatic genius of Jean Philippe Rameau on the 250th anniversary of his death. This programme features a wonderful mixture of arias and duets for soprano and tenor as well as dance music, all drawn from many of his operas. Die Kölner Akademie is a critically acclaimed ensemble based in Cologne which performs music from the 17th through to the 21st century. On January 24, a concert at the Church of All Souls at 19:30 will see Simon Schembri for the first time in Malta directing the Ensemble Baroque de Toulouse in a programme of 18th century music with works by Handel, Vivaldi, Boccherini and Marcello. January 25 is another full day of Baroque music. At 11:00 a concert at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral will feature Lords and Masters a concert by Camerata Galatea together with special guest Gillian Zammit and music by Prota, Handel, Festing and Telemann. In the evening, the auditorium of Teatru Manoel will again this year be the venue for the much anticipated Baroque Festival Ball at 21:00. Guests in baroque costume or black tie and masks will dance the night away to the music by a 10 piece band and string quartet led by Gjorgji Cincievski. Manoel Theatre is offering discounted costume hire from its Costume House whereas a series of Baroque dance classes will be offered in the run-up to the ball. These classes are being held daily until January 24 between 18:00 and 19:00 at Manoel Theatre. Sunday January 26, the final day of the Baroque festival, will see another three events. At Sala Isouard at 12:30, acclaimed Maltese pianist Joanne Camilleri will present In Bach's Footsteps a programme of works by Bach which highlight the composer's development as a Kapellmeister who epitomises 18th century music. At 15:00, Toi Toi will present a Lords and Masters Workshop, an invite from Grandmaster Antonio Manoel de Vilhena to all young Lords and Ladies in Malta aged 6-12 years at a musical party to be