Unanswered questions, unanswered prayers

I cannot think of two more appealingly iconic compositions than Ravel’s Bolero and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

In a way they are very similar; both are 20th century works in which hypnotic percussive rhythm plays a vital part. Both have deeply sensual overtones.

Bejart’s choreographic version of Bolero for an all-male ensemble is deeply sexual and yet there is no better way to appreciate the various sounds of an orchestra than in this tremendous crescendo of a work with which the French Maurice Ravel, not for the first time, portrayed the sounds, flavours and dances of Spain.

Ravel was one of the greatest orchestrators who ever walked this earth and the way Wayne Marshall conducted this masterpiece was primarily to show us all what the various sections of the orchestra can do by making the various musicians, with the exception of the ‘cellos and double basses, of course, stand during their solos. It also underscored and illustrated the original Ravellian instrumental combinations. The effect was riveting.

July 23’s concert that concluded the Malta Arts Festival was packed chock-a-block; with a programme like this I would have been shocked and surprised had it not been.

I love Marshall’s style, which is relaxed with the audience and punchy with the orchestra; bringing out the sound and the tightness of rhythm in a very exciting sequence that never flagged, either in the Ravel or in the Orff.

That the sound was highly amplified was inevitable. In a hall, as one simply cannot by the remotest stretch of the imagination call it an auditorium, like the MCC, the only way to produce a successful sound is to amplify it.

The amplification did contribute mightily to the success of the evening but never forgetting that it was due to Marshall’s charismatic style and innate musicality that kept the audience hanging on every phrase and every passage as if life depended on it.

Orff’s Carmina Burana is an odd work due to the fact that, as Marshall pointed out in his witty, informative introductions and commentaries, it is a one-off success.

Very few of us know of any other work by Orff offhand, and even if we do, none have the popularity, well-deserved nonetheless, of Carmina Burana, which is a masterpiece from start to finish and which many of us music lovers consider a first love, along with other grandiose works like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, which incidentally kicked off the festival on July 1 at the MCC under Brian Schembri’s baton.

I am happy the organisers of the festival have decided to put on popular works like these during the summer festival but I fail to understand the logic as to why we cannot have these types of performances all year round.

Both orchestral concerts could have been performed just as effectively in January rather than in July when the heat was blistering and when most of the audience felt casseroled.

If the orchestra does not use the plenty of open air venues available in Malta in the summer what is the whole point of using the very inadequate MCC instead?

If the MCC board takes the decision to amplify the orchestra as they did for this concert then I envisage lots of Sibelius, Mahler, Bruckner and Richard Strauss; not to mention Berlioz and Tchai­kovsky for next season 2012/13 in the MCC every other week.

This is the kind of music people want to listen to; music they know and love, and I remain mystified as to why are we not giving it to them.

With regard to the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra I was im­press­ed by the euphoria with which they performed. A much augmented orchestra that rose to the occasion and played with style and virtuosity that made me, who knows practically all of them personally, very proud.

A word of praise also to the three choirs that performed the Orff; the Mirabitur Youth Choir under the direction of Simone Attard, the Pavilion Chamber Choir under the direction of John Hancorn and the St Monica Choir under the direction of Sister Benjamina Portelli, whom I must thank again for making the performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion a few months ago possible.

The lady in red, soprano Maureen Braithwaite, in her rufa tunica was splendid, and her soaring Dulcissime mesmerising, while I was amused by the burlesque performance by tenor David Alsopp as the hapless swan roasting on a spit. The accolades go to the baritone, of course; the star of Carmina Burana, Kevin Short whose performance was flawless and highly dramatic.

Tight, fast and furious is one way of describing the evening which brought the Malta Arts Festival to an end, which gives us all plenty of food for thought regarding the future of music-making in Malta. The arts festival concerts, while being milestones that establish new benchmarks in the development and artistic growth of the orchestra, also pose several questions about its future.

Will we go on using an inadequate location wherein one has to resort to amplification to stage credible concerts? Or should we, with 2018 on the horizon, be planning the establishment of a proper auditorium in which the acoustic is altogether natural as in normal run-of-the-mill concert halls throughout the world?

Amplification is used for open air concerts, not performances in auditoriums, unless, like the MCC, the intrinsic acoustic shortcomings make this impossible to avoid.