Christmas has come and gone, and very pleasant it was too. All that remains now is to put away the bits and pieces back into boxes with the hope that I will be around to open them again next year. If not, oh well...
I have once again resisted behaving like a chav and displaying a showy Father Christmas in a reindeer-driven sleigh with the words 'Ho Ho Ho' emblazoned above his head, on the balcony. Nothing wrong with showing a little bad taste around Christmas. I did try. I bought some plastic poinsettias as the balcony is just a mass of green, awaiting the spring awakening of the plants. I thought plastic poinsettias one way of injecting a bit of colour to the balcony. I have tried living poinsettias several times but one windy day and a bit of rain and they were forever ruined.
Time to unleash my chav within I said to myself. The balcony now resembles a painting by Hieronymous Bosch even if I never did get round to buying that Fr Christmas with a sleigh. Next year, if I am still alive. The Chinese shops will have even more stuff by then.
Around this area there are no gaudy decorations, which I love. It is all very genteel. One has to go further afield to enjoy over-the-top displays outside homes. For those inside you have to watch television. There are some real enthusiasts around, people who know their electrics. You can depend on some hardy perennials which come up year in year out. One of these homes is in San Gwann with its display outside. I always pay it a visit by going past it very slowly, several times over Christmas holidays. Grandchildren love it, too. No epileptic within a few miles radius would be safe around that place.
Sliema Council should offer a prize each Christmas to encourage households to participate and brighten the inner streets of Sliema. All this gentility is no good. In fact it is pathetic. Bring out the chav in you next year and ensure a cooler Yule.
I don't want to bypass a most pleasurable concert I attended on 10th December at the Robert Samut Hall which provides great cultural rewards considering its size. The concert was baptized Idyllic Chamber.
I always enjoyed Maestro Michael Laus's piano playing and conducting. However I have missed the last concerts he gave through no fault of my own and I was determined to go to this last one. There is something about him which is wholesome. He carries his learning and his gifts lightly. That evening he immediately created a rapport with the audience. It was full house. He told us something interesting about each of the three pieces performed although I have now forgotten what he said. This was one hour of satisfying music. Very enjoyable indeed.
Soprano Miriam Gauci and her husband Maestro Michael Laus
The evening started with Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. When I see Wagner on a concert programme what flashes through my mind from theory lessons in my young days are Tristan and Isolde, Tannhäuser, Siegfried, and of course Götterdämmerung. All I know is that one of these operas takes days to perform and that Beyrouth is very much associated with Wagner. I also remember that Gioachino Rossini said of his works: "Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour." He is reputed to have been "an awful man despite his genius. He was a deeply flawed and unpleasant character - racist anti-Semitic, Machiavellian and a serial philanderer with a monstrous ego." Thank goodness I never met him! Moreover surprisingly despite his great successes in the concert hall and in the opera house, "Wagner was never able to stay out of debt during his lifetime."
Who isn't acquainted with the hair-raising Ride of the Valkyries the five minute orchestral firework which has been used in countless TV commercials, TV programmes and films? The five-hour opera from which it comes, remains one of the most popular operas in the world today.
I was glad to find that that evening what the MPO was going to play was the gentle Siegfried Idyll. No women in helmets with blazing nostrils flying across the stage. Just a performance of the Siegfried Idyll given the gentle treatment. This is possibly the most special birthday present ever. Wagner wrote it for his new wife Cosima. He smuggled a chamber orchestra of musicians onto the landing outside her bedroom in 1870 and had them play this new work for her. I hope he remained faithful to her after such a display of affection. You never know with him and I had no time to research it.
Ukrainian doctor Elena Gauci, soprano Victoria and Russian-Armenian Jaklin Engloian all living in Malta
The other two pieces played that evening were Ottorino Respighi Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No 3, music which has a sense of joy and vitality and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Divertimento No. 2, K 131. Well, Mozart is Mozart and unique.
After the concert I went to pay my respects to Professor Maestro Laus and his wife, our very own and the world's soprano, Miriam Gauci, whom I had not seen for a long time. I asked them if I could take them a photo but they insisted on including me. I was not looking my best I protested but...!
The evening went by too quickly in the confident and believing hands of Maestro Laus. I look forward to many more performances by the MPO which has given us so much pleasure the past year.
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