Early-music performances were a rarity in Malta until a few years ago. Slowly, over the years, harpsichords started to appear in concerts and a retired doctor began to build clavichords. During a series of fundraising concerts for the restoration of one of Valletta's oldest churches, a male-voice choir was formed to sing renaissance polyphony. This fervent activity led a local artist, Kenneth Zammit Tabona, to dream of a baroque music festival in the island's capital, Valletta. January 2013 saw the first Valletta International Baroque Festival, with concerts held in several of Valletta's baroque edifices, including the magnificent Manoel Theatre (built in 1731 and one of the oldest working theatres in Europe) and the awe-inspiring St John's Co-Cathedral, the church of the Knights of Malta. The first year was a resounding success and augured well for the future, as was confirmed in the second year of the festival.

Many of the concerts during the third festival, held in January 2015, were fully booked well before the first note was sounded. The festival kicked off with a concert by the Nederlands Kamerkoor featuring Robert White's Lamentations. Zammit Tabona, artistic director of the festival, dedicated this concert to the victims of recent acts of terrorism, a fitting tribute. The tercentenary of the birth of Maltese composer Girolamo Abos (1715–1760) was celebrated with three concerts of his works, by the Passacaglia Ensemble, Die Kölner Akademie and the Valletta International Baroque Ensemble. Abos was born in Malta and went to Naples in 1725 to study at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù with Francesco Durante, Gaetano Greco and Gerolimo Ferrara. He started his career in Naples in 1742 with an opera buffa for the Teatro Nuovo, and from 1754 was a teacher at the Conservatorio Santa Maria della Pietà dei Turchini, where Paisiello was one of his students. He was well known in Europe, where he travelled frequently. In 1755 Abos joined the ‘Congregazione dei musici di Napoli’, and at that time also served as maestro di cappella at several of the city's churches, composing seven masses, several litanies and other sacred vocal works. He also wrote fourteen operas for Naples, Rome and London, of which Tito Manlio (Naples, 1751) was the most successful. During his stay in London in 1756–1758 he occupied the post of music director of the Italian Theatre, after which he returned to Naples. Abos never returned to his place of birth. Thanks to the efforts of local musicologists Frederick Aquilina, Joseph Vella Bondin and Joseph Vella, together with the Australian musicologist and conductor Richard Divall, much of Abos's music has been researched and edited.

The Valletta International Baroque Ensemble, consisting of Maltese musicians augmented by international performers who provide instruments and expertise not available on the islands, provides a platform for education and training of local performers. Their performance this year gave us the opportunity to hear three talented soloists in an outstanding performance of Abos's Stabat mater: the British soprano Mhairi Lawson, Maltese soprano Gillian Zammit and Maltese mezzo-soprano Claire Ghigo. The Stabat mater is one of Abos's longest sacred works, scored for three voices, strings and basso continuo. The music is remarkable for its melodic elegance, the equal prominence of the voices (often supported by two violins and cello) and a final ‘Amen’ fugue demonstrating Abos's talent as a contrapuntist. Die Kölner Akademie, in consultation with Aquilina, gave an outstanding performance of Abos's Magnificat edited from a manuscript preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek of Vienna (Mus. Hs. 19084). This was followed by the Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel (Commissione Arcivescovile di Santa Cecilia, Naples (catalogue number 17, supplement 1)) and finally a superb Messa a due cori (Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella, Naples (catalogue number 37.7.50)).

The festival also gave audiences an opportunity to hear instruments not played in Malta since the eighteenth century, namely the theorbo, sackbut and cornet. Continuing this introduction to early instruments, Sigiswald Kuijken performed the six Bach cello suites on the violoncello da spalla. On the other hand, the young and talented Maltese pianist Joanne Camilleri provided a refreshing new perspective on Bach's Goldberg Variations, which was exquisitely played. The keynote concert was a wonderful performance of Bach's St John Passion by the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment with the Joyful Company of Singers in the magnificent setting of St John's Co-Cathedral. As with previous festivals, special programmes were devised to familiarize young people with the music and instruments of the period. Inspiring baroque music in equally inspiring baroque settings has now become the hallmark of a festival that is truly international, as witnessed both by the performers and the many tourist groups present at the venues.