The Neptune Courtyard at the Palace, Valletta, resounded with delightful music in a concert on Wednesday. The concert was in the series of events forming part of the Malta Arts Festival and sponsored by Malta International Airport. The historic courtyard was packed with a most appreciative audience; perhaps a bit over-eager in that very often, irrepressible applause broke out before the last note sounded.

Various elements combined to make this evening a success.

There was the participation of our popular soprano Lydia Caruana. She was stunning in looks, mien, attire and mostly in performance: which not all singers could afford. There was young (a mere 27 years old) Ukranian tenor Dmytro Popov, who turned out to be quite a revelation. The orchestra consisted of the Berwald Symphony Orchestra of Stockholm, all members of the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra with a few Maltese musicians conducted by Austrian director Manfred Honeck.

The orchestra went immediately into the musical fray by performing the opening movement of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony. The incisive and cohesive and very crisply phrased music augured well for the rest of the evening, which later included more purely orchestral pieces like the opening movement of another of Mozart’s final, symphonic trilogy. This was the allegro molto of the very popular Symphony n.40, which despite its lyrical appeal has an underlying current of sadness, one that was well-projected by

the players.

The finale from Haydn’s Symphony n.88 in G was a sparkling example of wit and good spirits and made me wish the whole work were performed! Two concerto movements also formed part of the programme. First there was Winter from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, with soloist Per Sporrong. This was a delicately stylish delivery from the soloist to pizzicato accompaniment, and which evoked (take your choice) the patter of raindrops or even falling snowflakes. Clarinettist Johan Fransen was an absolute delight in his poetic rendering of the adagio from Mozart’s exquisite Clarinet Concerto… and I know that many sighed for more.

Dubbing the concert Love is in the Air had more to do with the vocal content of the concert. This consisted of a number of excerpts from popular operas and included a very mood-setting, sole, instrumental operatic piece. This was the prelude to Act I of Verdi’s La Traviata, a love-story par excellence. Still, the very first vocal piece was from Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, from which Lydia Caruana sang the difficult coloratura piece Je veux vivre. At first rather subdued, with the voice warming up nicely Lydia Caruana brought off this piece pretty well. Her interpretation of E’ strano...follie, follie...sempre libera from La Traviata... was a strong and very heartfelt one needing only a little more strength and support in the highest reaches. The voice was really in full bloom then in Un bel di’ from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly where the phrasing and control accentuated well the nuances of this piece which is so very full of pathos.

Tenor Dmytro Popov has a beautiful voice and gave an inkling of what was to come in his off-stage outbursts towards the end of Violetta’s great Act I scene E’ strano, etc. from La Traviata. Popov has a robust voice with a warm timbre at times verging on the high baritonal range.

This really coloured most appropriately his Dei miei bollenti spiriti, endowing with credibility his giovanil ardore. He can also control his voice reducing it to a lovely pianissimo while uttering he was living quasi in ciel.

He was appropriately brash and sardonic in that hymn to lechery, La donna e’ mobile from Verdi’s Rigoletto. His diction here and elsewhere, although quite good needs some polishing.

As with most non-Italian singers there is a tendency not to accentuate double consonants or else accentuate single ones.

I liked Puccini’s after-thought, Addio fiorito asil from Madama Butterfly. Here Popov sang with great conviction and passion, regret and remorse and displayed very admirable voice control. The two singers were very well-matched in the two duets on the programme. The first was Parigi o cara, from la Traviata, a well-etched exercise in optimism doomed to failure. The second was the great love duet, which concludes Act I of Madama Butterfly. It was simply beautiful and the two singers earned very well-deserved plaudits.

At the end of the concert, Ms Caruana’s thanking in Maltese the audience for their presence and support aroused even more enthusiasm. Even so, the audience would not have left without an encore. This was conceded, and it was a brilliant Brindisi from La Traviata.