Paolino Vassallo's legacy

Cecilia Xuereb's review, "Brahms' Double Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Sixth" (The Sunday Times, January 28) stated that we are rediscovering the music of Paolino Vassallo "thanks to the performance of his works by the National Orchestra".

The honour for the rediscovery of Paolino Vassallo has to go to APS Bank which, as part of its ongoing commitment towards Maltese society and its cultural heritage, introduced its current four-year cycle of pre-Motu proprio Maltese Grand Masses on December 1, 2005, at St John's Co-Cathedral, with a revival of Vassallo's Grande messa per soli, coro e orchestra (1889).

This Mass was specifically chosen because 2006 was the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Indeed, APS Bank's excellent and innovative series of ongoing flagship concerts of outstanding Maltese works begun in 2001 has helped to instil a national appreciation of a legacy which was greatly under-estimated in the not-too-distant past.

It is therefore a pity that the Manoel Theatre's 2006 opera festival failed to include a Vassallo opera, as not only Vassallo but also the Maltese nation deserved. But perhaps the operas of Vassallo and other Maltese composers are still not considered good enough for the festival.

Besides organising the concert, APS Band also took steps to record Vassallo's work on CD - recorded and pressed by Gega New of Bulgaria and its reference number is GR 100.

This CD, available from leading music shops, is enriched by a brochure which includes an analytical biography of Paolino Vassallo based on the latest research and an examination of his Grand Mass against contemporary compositional practices.