Ave Maria

Joseph Calleja, one of the world’s leading tenors, announces ‘Ave Maria’ – his first ever sacred album. Here, Calleja is joined for the first time on record by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, with no less than four Ave Marias – by Mascagni, Massenet, Schubert and Andrea Bocelli. The album also features guest appearances by Daniel Hope on violin in (title) and French baritone Étienne Dupuis in the famous duet from The Pearl Fishers.

An important contribution to our understanding of the ‘gentle master musician.’ Stephen Rice brings perceptive musical insights to these accounts, and also sheds light on Févin’s idiom in the excellent CD booklet. His vocal ensemble may be slender but the singing is robust and buoyantly articulated. Boyish upper voices offset velvety tenors and basses, and the relatively close recording perspective produces a sound at once lucid and lustrous.