Conductor's 'overactivity' at the Manoel concert

Although since my early youth, music - along with chess - has been one of my ardent passions, I never could bring myself to pursue rigorous studies: hence my reactions to the opening concert at the Manoel Theatre are purely amateurish, and are solely directed at Mro Brian Schembri's entertaining (!) performance.

Familiar as I am with both Beethoven's Emperor Concerto and Schubert's Ninth Symphony, regrettably I am unable to appreciate fully the highly technical comments on the performance made by Mario Calafato and other correspondents in recent letters. However, I entirely agree with Mr Calafato on the hilariously comic exhibitionism by Mro Schembri. I can only remember one similar histrionic performance at the Manoel by a Polish guest conductor - whose name now escapes me - some years ago. What stuck in my mind was this Polish conductor's rather odd peculiarity of stooping very low on the podium when the orchestra was going through some pianissimo passage. I am sure that a lot of Manoel Theatre patrons can bear me out on this.

Incidentally, I have now come to know that at least one member of the audience was so dissatisfied with the conductor at the recent Manoel season inauguration concert that he had to leave prematurely. I am not surprised at all: my grandson, shifting next to me, confided afterwards that Mro Schembri's "overactivity" disturbed him to such an extent that, at times, he had to follow the performance with his head hanging low on his chest!

Coming back to Mr Calafato's comments, his strictures impel me to ask why on earth Mro Schembri elected to conduct Schubert from memory! From my seat, way back in the pit, with the grand piano obstructing the view, I could not ascertain whether the Emperor Concerto was likewise conducted from memory. For all I know, as a layman I presume that with the score right there in front of him, he might have avoided those pitfalls mentioned by Mr Calafato.

Perhaps it is good to remember that the now-iconic Arturo Toscanini once commented that even the great Victor de Sabata was "visually overactive". Who knows, perhaps Mro Schembri was monkeying de Sabata... or perhaps Leonard Bernstein! Even so, I wonder what Toscanini's verdict on the childish exhibitionism would have been.

Do we not, Manoel Theatre patrons, deserve something better?