Last Concert at Bir Miftuh: Promenade à Trois Voix

Summertime means friends coming from abroad, heat (not to mention dust) and the reluctance on my part, to do very much that needs any exertion at all. So I go out as little as possible except if I travel to cooler places. I look at my wardrobe and decide, that really, I cannot face putting on any of those clothes even if they are cotton or linen.

I did, however, manage to go to the last of the Bir Miftuh concerts which I always enjoy.

This year I found the Promenade a Trois Voix with three excellent musicians/singers un po’ troppo. It was sponsored jointly by the Italian and French embassies, The Alliance Française and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura.

It was a too long a programme of early music by Italian and French composers. These were sacred chants and folk songs.

The musicians were truly gifted, sang in Italian and French, danced and played different instruments, including ancient ones such as the viola da gamba and the lira da braccio.

The three of them have a distinguished cv. One

of them, Florian Villain is Professor of Philosophy in Paris, Head of Sociology at the University of Caen and plays the chitarra battente, an ancient guitar from southern Italy, as well as mandolin and percussion. A high achiever indeed.

One certainly could not fault their music. However, I found the programme too long, too esoteric. A few pieces in a programme made up of more popular pieces would have been more enjoyable and less demanding of the audience on a hot and humid summer’s evening.

Simone Mizzi redeemed the evening with her speech in which she spoke in English, French, Maltese and Italian. Also the ‘new’ executive president of Din l’Art Helwa, Prof. Alex Torpiano did not mince his words even if I don’t remember what he said. But in an interview he gave in April he points his finger squarely at the Planning Authority and at politicians as the biggest culprits of the mess our environment is in. I shouldn’t think he has changed his views since then.