I have always loved concertos. Whether for piano, violin, ‘cello or whatever, the drama of a solo instrument pitted against the collective might of a symphony orchestra cannot but fail to thrill. Top of the range are the great piano concertos; the Beethoven Emperor, the Tchaikovsky no 1, the Rach 2 and the Grieg, the Dvorak Cello Concerto and the Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Bruch Violin Concertos.

Although these top the popularity lists there are hundreds and thousands of concertos one can enjoy and the beauty of it is that they are still being composed as at here and now.

The John Adams Violin Concerto and the Carl Vine Piano Concerto for instance are both contemporary musical adventures that will surely charm and convert the most conservative of music lovers into a new frame of mind where today's musical creativity is concerned. Sadly in this year's orchestral performances the concerto has played a very subordinate role and in fact has been noticeable by its absence.

I cannot understand why the organisers namely the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra Committee and the Manoel itself have downplayed this very popular formula for success. The inclusion of a concerto in an orchestral programme has always filled the theatre; so why not use it?

Last Tuesday's orchestral concert in the series The Composer Conducts consisted of Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony, which, as anyone who knows it can attest is anything but, Joseph Vella's Sinfonietta for 13 Wind Players and Gustav Mahler's Fourth Symphony.

Again I would have imagined that the entire evening would have been dedicated to the compositions of Joseph Vella however I sometimes am at a complete loss as to how and why both the orchestra committee and the MTMC give titles to these events. A case in point is the so called BoV Opera Festival which is the staging of two operatic nights and a chamber recital; hardly a festival! However I digress.

The most effective work performed last Tuesday was without a doubt Mahler's 4^th. Very much a precursor of the iconic 5^th, this symphony is not often performed as it is definitely not a work for the fainthearted. Pulling it off is a tour de force. I have my reservations about playing large works like this in the relatively tiny Manoel Theatre; one of the chief reasons being that because of the forces involved, the wins and brass are placed far back unbalancing the orchestral sound.

This was especially evident in the performance of Sibelius's 7^th Symphony a couple of months ago but mercifully not so marked in the Mahler possibly because of the particular way the composer breaks up the orchestra into ensembles. Still the Manoel is no place to perform such a work. There was plenty of lovely solo parts for the first and second violins and the oboe plus a plethora of interesting percussion which renders this monumental symphony with its colossal slow movement and vocal finale a hard nut to crack. I feel that Joe Vella truly did it justice. It must definitely be a symphony that he knows and loves very deeply for it was performed with passion and lots of verve and the results were obvious.

I especially enjoyed the Andante which I always think of as a Scherzo in slow motion. The finale, Comodo, was sung by soprano Georgina Gauci, who although blessed with a pleasant enough voice lacks the sinuous dramatic qualities that harmonise so beautifully with the Mahler score.

It also needed to tackle the long drawn out legato phrasing with more ease; something that will surely come in time for the voice per se was extremely beautiful but was not mature enough to pull off something like this as yet.

While the Mahler Symphony was all about textures and balance, the Sinfonietta for 13 Wind Instruments by composer and conductor Joseph Vella was perplexing possibly because with a new work one needs several hearings to make head or tail of what the composer is trying to say...........or does one? I am very much in two minds about this. I avoided reading the page and a half of doubtlessly insightful and erudite programme notes as I did not want to be influenced by them. To start with I felt that aesthetically this chamber piece did not sit well between two symphonies for the simple reason that after the visual feast provided by the Britten it sounded too stark and almost outlandish.

Then the monumentality of the subsequent Mahler just obliterated it. The Sinfonietta is not a work that excites the senses or which appeals overmuch to the emotions. It is a relatively cerebral work that requires great technical skill on the part of the 13 soloists. I just was not transported anywhere special by it.

The Adagio, a lament, was suitably lugubrious, but the cohesion of the short blasts in the initial Allegretto got the better of me while the fragmented final Giocoso reminded me of the sounds of car horns in Delhi traffic. I have yet to listen to a Maltese contemporary work that is going to wow me from the word go. One simply must ask where we are going here. I am comme d ‘habitude, mighty perplexed.

I just love the alliterative titles of the four movements of Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony; a dazzling work for strings. Boisterous Bouree, Playful Pizzicato, Sentimental Sarabande and Frolicsome Finale are simply splendiferous descriptions of each movement which can all stand on their own as integral pieces but when put together are simply glorious. This is the sort of music I always wish to paint as they evoke so much light and colour.

Last Tuesday's performance tended to be heavy handed at times. I felt that the approach could have been lighter, tighter and less deliberate as the playfulness, boisterousness, frolicsomeness and sentimentality are descriptions to be taken very literally and very seriously. I enjoyed the sarabande most of all and was seriously charmed by the pizzicato.