A harp, two beautiful voices and some exquisite songs made for a very special evening at the Manoel Theatre a couple of weeks ago. This was a concert for the launch of Aprile - the stars being Britt Arend on the harp, mezzo soprano Clare Ghigo and soprano Gillian Zammit. I wasn't going to miss it although it was Carnival Saturday and entrance into Valletta via Floriana was blocked. I knew the only way was to park under St Paul's Co-Cathedral and puff my way up all those stairs. I am still puffing. I later noticed two wardens dishing out tickets to cars parked around the Cathedral. I spoke to one of them and told her to be kind as because of Carnival today the parking was even more dire than usual. She said she was only giving tickets to those who had parked in the blue boxes. Returning home with no parking ticket has always been a kind of moral victory.
The three musicians had returned from Frankfurt in December where they gave a very successful concert for the European Central Bank. If you are talented these days and willing to work hard and travel all kinds of opportunites lie in wait - and these young women are taking them.
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In 2011 Gillian had issued another CD The Love Songs of Paolo Tosti in which she is accompanied on the piano by Lucia Micallef. I listen to this soothing CD from time to time but never got down to giving it any publicity. Another thing on my conscience. There is always the not so simple matter of finding time to fit in everything. We need 48 hours to the day and not 24. I never understood how some people say they are bored. How can one be bored is beyond me.
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Francesco Tosti (1846-1916) was knighted by Queen Victoria for his services to music. She must have enjoyed his songs with her Albert.In fact in 1880 he was made singing master to the Royal Family. Although there was a time when Tosti was so poor that he subsisted on stale bread and oranges (an example I need to follow for at least a month) his fortunes turned and when he went to England through some powerful introductions he became a staple in fashionable drawing rooms and salons, and thence to a royal appointment. His fame as a composer of songs grew rapidly while he was in England. By 1885 he was the most popular composer of songs in England. His publishers paid him a staggering retaining fee for twelve songs a year.
There is not a single one I don't like in Gillian's first CD and in this recently launched CD Aprile. Some might consider Tosti's songs as mere trifles but how soothing to listen to all three musicians singing and playing the harp and take me to another world which somehow seems so much more civilized. Tosti composed songs which are loved by those of my generation: 'A Vucchella, Marechiare, Mattinata, for example, still popular as concert pieces. His songs are gentle and lyrical. Both Gillian and Clare have fine and pure voices. The harp simply enhances both voices.
Apart from two Tosti songs - Sogno and Aprile Gillian also sang two songs by Debussy, Beau Soir and Nuit d'é toiles and Hahn's A Chloris and Clare sang his most famous song Se mes vers avaient des ailes. So utterly , utterly moving. The lyrics are by none other than Victor Hugo. Pure poetry.
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Gillian sang two songs by the young composer Alex Vella Gregory: Post Mortem and L-Ghorfa and Clare Nghallmek tbus which fitted in so beautifully with the rest of the album. We shall here much more about Alex. He is at present working on his Ph.D. and is very much part of the musicial scene here.
I loved the duets: Pauline's Viardot's Habaners, Saint-Saens's Ave Maria, Offenbach's Bacarolle.
Viardot was of Spanish descent, came from a musical family and was a mezzo-soprano. Liszt said of her "the world had finally found a woman composer of genius."
We all love Bizet's Habanera from Carmen. Viardot's is very different but also most pleasant.
Offenbach obviously had a sense of humour and since he was born in Cologne though was of French nationality, would sometimes sign himself 'O. de Cologne'. He had unleashed the can-can on an unsuspecting French public in 1858. Of course it comes from his operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, which scandalized the chattering classes of Paris at the time of its premiere. His Bacarolle Belle nuit o nuit d'amour comes from his Tales of Hoffman.
There are other songs in this CD. The concert was a most pleasant experience and so is the CD.
I don't want to forget to mention it is a Malta Philharmonic Orchestra initiative and the three musicians wish to thank Sigmund Mifsud, whom I kissed at the door of the Manoel, where he was with his young daughter. There was an excellent audience considering it was Carnival and all the hard work involved in parking.
The CD is for sale from the Manoel Theatre and could you mention that it is an MPO initiative with thanks to Sigmund Mifsud?
Aprile can be purchased from MPO offices on 21244473 at €12.00