The Malta Independent on Sunday
An effervescent President’s concert
It is more than a little sad to think that this will be President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca’s last concert as President. Her warmth and smile and complete lack of airs and graces will be missed. But that’s not all of course. She will most certainly reappear again soon, and give even more service to our country.
*** The stars that evening of the concert at the Mediterranean Conference Centre were The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the young Albanian conductor Sergey Smbatyan and mezzo soprano Clare Ghigo whom I last saw starring at a Piaf evening.
Now I know my Piaf and nothing is more horrendous, if you are a fan of some singer or another, than to listen to the songs you love so well, being mangled and distorted. To me Clare’s performance that evening, over a year ago now, was most enjoyable and she has promised me she would organise another Piaf evening. And I am holding her to her promise.
*** Sergey Smbatyan and our Phiharmonic Orchestra are not new to each other. In 2018 they went on a European tour and apart from performing at the Mediterranean Conference Centre they played in Munich, Stuttgart, Wiesbadan, Berlin and Vienna.
The programme itself, that evening, was bi-lingual, an unnecessary expense in my view, as I doubt that anyone Maltese who attends a concert of this nature would not be able to read English while the foreigners present would not be able to follow in Maltese.
The programme listed three pieces by Johann Strauss II: Voices of Spring, Freikugein and TritschTratsch Polka, all staples of the repertoire and which ensure that a concert is light and the audience leave in a spring-time mood even if it is the depths of winter.
*** The Strauss family is world famous but Johann Jr the most famous of all. Patricia Salomone’s programme on Campus FM, in the series A Book a Thousand Stories based on John Suchet’s book The Last Waltz will give you an appetite for the music of the Strauss family if you don’t already have one (and who hasn’t?).
Johann Junior and his orchestra were constantly on the move and, wherever they travelled to play, he was expected to come up with some new pieces. While obvious ‘hits’ and favourites stayed in the repertoire, often the novelties were treated as ephemeral and in many instances only the short piano- score has survived. Such is the perversity of human experience that quite regularly the original orchestral parts would suddenly appear for some of the pieces after the recording had been done.
JJ is the same Strauss who at the age of 19 created his first sensation in Vienna when he introduced the waltz Jugend-Traüme which received no less than five encores. Already brilliant at 19.
The orchestra provided us with a relaxed ambience and was obviously enjoying playing these well-known and loved pieces. The mood was amiable and the playing quite polished. Vivacious music-making indeed. Sergey Smbatyan was conducting for the concert hall and not for the commercial ballroom.
*** We enjoyed Tchiakovsky’s Overture – Swan Lake Suite, possibly the greatest of his three ballet scores and a familiar favourite. The orchestra’s music making had much zest and kept us on our toes.
*** Gioachino Rossini narrowly escaped castration suggested by an uncle who admired his voice, probably wanting to make a castrato of him. Rossini devoted himself, body and soul, to music studies while at the same time his taste buds were also developing, helped by the culinary ability of his grandmother from Romagna.
And so, Clare Ghigo, sang another famous aria Una voce poco fa from Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
In 1816 Rossini made his debut at Teatro Argentina in Rome with Almaviva, ossia l’inutile precauzione, which, as you have guessed, was to become the Barbiere. In Rome it was a spectacular fiasco but was to become spectacularly successful with its witty score.
Clare Ghigo, a mezzo with a rich vibrant voice, not only coped so well with the technical demands but also gave a winningly provocative characterization. She was wonderful at bringing out the fun, too.
Clare sang another fun piece: Nicolò Isouard’s Non je me veux pas chanter from his opera Le billet de Loterie. Nicolò de Malte as he called himself, was born in Malta but lived most of his life in Paris where he made a successful career as a composer. A bust of him was placed on one of the façades of both the Théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique and the Palais Garnier and one of the main squares in Paris was given his name as indeed is a street in Sliema. Clare put her heart in this piece, too. She also sang with great passion Ruperto Chapi’s Hijas de Zebedeo – Al pensar en el dueno – whatever that means. I loved it and another Spanish ‘fun’ piece by Gerónimo Giménez, La Tempranica. Fine singing indeed.
The orchestra gave us three pieces by Leroy Anderson. Both the orchestra and audience perked up at the sound of Leroy’s music. Not that there was any danger of anyone snoozing mind you. I loved Sandpaper Ballet which was composed in 1954. The percussion did sound like sandpaper or was someone playing sand blocks at the back?
I really wanted to get up and dance.
Song of the Bells is a waltz and the orchestra also played Leroy’s Trumpeter’s Lullaby. The head of the trumpet section of the orchestra is Kevin Abela. Was he playing this piece? Whoever played it did it justice.
Delightful Leroy music but my favourite is Anderson’s Last Rose of Summer. Perhaps the orchestra will play it next year. Sublime. *** Three more pieces were on the programme: Prokofiev’s Troika from Lieutenant Kijé, a seasonal favourite as is Khachaturian’s famous Sabre Dance and Leonard Bernstein Mambo from West Side Story, all popular compositions. ***
For all the CD’s in the world and music at the touch of a button, there is nothing like an evening out listening to a live performance. I regret that there are so many concerts I miss including those of The Baroque Festival. But there are duties and family and other events to which to attend. As we say ‘we cannot do everything’. Each day should be twice as long, and our lives twice as long, too. Perhaps.
I left hoping I had not got a ticket for parking on the pavement. Saying ‘Parking is a problem’ has become a cliché. Thank goodness no ticket. mbenoit@independent.com.mt