Lierac launch by Pharma MT Ltd at Villa Arrigo

Lierac Paris Laboratories were created in 1975. The range, on display at Villa Arrigo, is extensive and includes anti-aging skin care, daily essentials, dermatological skincare, body care and sun care products – the Sunific Solaire range. There are also products for stretch marks prevention and correction – the dream of every mother and mother-to-be. The Phytolastil range has been the leading anti-stretch mark product for over 35 years we were told. It helps prevent the appearance of stretch marks and diminish the appearance of existing ones. Well, it is one product I shall not be needing. It is a pity that when I was having babies in Mauritius nothing like this existed. It was soap and water for everything in those days, when you could get the water.  At this stage of my life it is not stretch marks I am fighting but wrinkles and worst of all fat.

Director Elisa McKenna, pregnant and pretty, introduced us to Lierac’s International Training Manager Lierac Paris, Jean-Claude Barbotte-Goralski (he is half Polish he told me) who gave us a very comprehensive power point presentation about this well-known range of products.

This was also a good occasion for catching up with colleagues who work in the media.

Carina looked very French in black and white and was carrying an interesting-looking round white leather bag. She told me the designer is Martin Margiela; her skirt was by MaxMara and the white shirt with a black bow by Carven. She was wearing very elegant Manolos – no platform, no extraordinarily high heels either, but then she doesn’t need them.

We were spoilt for choice when it comes to food. I must say I found the table with multi-coloured macaroons most attractive and I could not resist a few, having already enjoyed quite a number of mouthfuls of delicious canapés.  How am I ever going to get back to Size 16 at this rate? Certainly not with Christmas coming and like most of us, a diary brimful of invitations.

Celebrating music at The Three Palaces      

When it comes to musical entertainment in the last two weeks or so I wish to give a very special star to the concerts and talks organized by Dr Herrera and his team both at the Ministry, where it is led by the knowledgeable (and glamorous) Annabelle Attard, Adviser, Culture and the Arts to Dr Herrera and the Artistic Directors of this Festival led by none other than the pianist Cynthia Turner.

Unhappily I only managed to attend two concerts, both at San Anton Palace, out of some dozen events which included talks and master classes as well.  I was otherwise committed.

When I received the well-produced programme I was very impressed that they had managed to engage John Lill, who is internationally famous especially for his Beethovan repertoire. That evening he played three of the most popular Sonatas, all by Beethovan: the Pathétique, the Piano Sonata No 14 in C Sharp Minor better known by its nickname the Moonlight Sonata and without doubt the best known work for solo piano which begins with the famously hypnotic opening movement.  This extraordinary pianist took our breath away and ended with the Appassionata.

Although Mozart and Haydn wrote Sonatas by the dozen it is Beethovan’s that are best known and loved.  Beethovan also changed classical music for ever when he wrote the most famous four notes in the history of classical music (the ‘da-da-da DAAAAAAAH’ at the start of Symphony No 5). Here is a composer who was already having trouble with his hearing in his twenties and by his forties he was completely deaf.  And yet he continued to create outstanding works without ever being able to hear a single note played.  What an evening of exquisite playing this was. The combination of Beethovan and John Lill was truly heady. The audience was mesmerized and cheekily we wanted an encore. The pianist, having just finished playing three demanding Sonatas and ending with the most demanding of them all, the Appassionata quite rightly said: ‘What can I play after that?’ He played a ‘quiet’ movement from a Beethovan Sonata which I did not recognize.

John Lill has great presence and directness in his playing and brought a formidable technique to these Sonatas. His playing makes a strong impression. He is quite short on sentiment though. But everything he played has his individual stamp. Somehow this came across to the audience. Above all, he never failed to convey the deep intensity of a master in communication with Beethovan.

I also managed the closing concert of the Three Palaces festival. This last concert also took place at San Anton by kind permission of the President. These events are also a great occasion for more of us to appreciate our heritage.

Charlene Farrugia’s playing was also very much enjoyed. It would not be fair to compare her to John Lill who is a 70-year-old seasoned pianist. But she is gifted, hard-working and no show off. She started off with Chopin’s Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante in E flat. To say that Chopin loved the piano would be an understatement. He adored it and dedicated his very life to taking piano composition and performance to new heights. In fact he wrote almost nothing else of note for any other instrument. Half French he became a fixture in Paris society and made good money teaching rich people how to play the piano. He died young, claimed by tuberculosis at the age of just 39 after his stormy affair with the much older Georges Sand had ended.

Charlene gave a delicate rendering of the opening of the Andante spianato and some scintillating playing in the following Grande Polonaise. Schumann’s demanding Carnaval came next. Schumann is yet another composer whose life was a tale of tragedy and early death. He was unable to follow his dream of becoming a concert pianist, like his successful wife Clara, because of an injury to his hand. He suffered from syphilis and depression, trying to commit suicide by throwing himself into the River Rhine. He was placed in an asylum where he died two years later. Perhaps today he would have been cured of his depression. Who knows? But his music lives on

Charlene gave us a most enjoyable performance of the demanding  Carnaval. Afterwards when the concert was over she told me that it is an example of a cyclic work so all its short pieces have to be played in a recital. In it, one character after another takes centre stage. It was described by the composer as "Little scenes on four notes", in which he proclaimed his love for Ernestine von Fricken through music. The letters ASCH, which spell Ernestine's birthplace, as well as a fragment of his own name, translate in German musical notation into the notes A, E flat, C and B. Permutations of these notes litter the entire score, generating the themes for the Carnival characters, some of them historic, like Chopin and Paganini, others folkloristic, and so on.

As an encore Charlene, visibly exhausted,  performed Scriabin's Prelude for the left hand only. When Scriabin was only 20 years old, and a student at Moscow Conservatoire, he injured his right hand by over practicing. His doctors predicted that he would never play again. He had the good sense to leave the right hand on the side, allowing it to heal,  and completely devote himself (for about six months) to training the left hand exclusively. The Prelude, op. 9 is the result of this painful experience. Charlene played it with great distinction.

These two concerts alone, never mind the rest of the Festival, were most satisfying and an excellent initiative by Dr Herrera and his team. Like Oliver, we ask for more.