Intriguing repertoire, effective interpretation

I sometimes wonder whether our cultural apathy is the result of carelessness or a sense of inferiority. I say this because Laura Cioffi’s recent concert deserved to be better publicised and attended.

Cioffi managed to sustain a full flute and piano recital of mostly baroque music, which is no mean feat

Do not get me wrong. The turn out was surprisingly good and, unlike most concerts, the average age was well beneath 60.

However, there should have been people queuing to get in, and here are the reasons why.

It was a free concert. We are a nation who cannot resist a freebie or a good bargain. So for those who lament that culture is expensive (which it can rightly be), there is a lot of good stuff out there for free.

Secondly, by attending, you would have been supporting the Teatru Salesjan Young Artist Scheme to promote young talent in Malta. Given that a lot of concert platforms (such as the Performer’s Platform at St James Cavalier) seem to have disappeared, any such initiative is welcome.

And, of course, the main reason to attend is to listen to Cioffi herself, a young flutist who is currently on a scholarship at Napier University in Edinburgh.

The best thing about young artists is that it always sounds fresh, even when perhaps the performance is not as polished and mature as with professional artists. Cioffi managed to sustain a full flute and piano recital of mostly baroque music, which is no mean feat.

The bulk of the programme presented some of the standard baroque flute repertoire. These consisted of Vivaldi’s concerto Il Gardellino and Bach’s Sonata in E Major.

The first is a transcription of an orchestral piece. Although the accompaniment naturally loses some of its brightness (you can never get the same trills on a piano as you would on a violin), it was very effectively rendered. The outer movements were brisk, almost frenetic, which were nicely balanced by the calm middle movement.

Of all the pieces in the programme, I found Cioffi’s interpretation of the Bach Sonata the most successful.

She was technically polished, and had a beautiful cantabile in the slower parts. Of course, there is always more to explore with Bach, but she already shows a great affinity with the composer.

Blavet’s Sonata in D Major was interesting not only because it is comparatively unknown, but also because it presents a French work which is heavily influenced by the Italian style. Although it was secure and musical, I felt it needed to be a bit freer in terms of tempos and phrasing, and not quite so formal.

Less happy were the two transcriptions for flute. One was the famous Air in D by Bach; the second was the slow movement from Vivaldi’s Winter taken from The Four Seasons.

The main problem here was the fact that both these works were originally written for violin solo, and the flute cannot sustain such long phrases as a violin because of breathing constraints. This resulted in tempos which were too fast and textures which were too thin.

The concert ended on a cheeky note, with a piece from C. Bolling’s Jazz Suite, titled Baroque and Blue. The piece is an interesting mixture of baroque and jazz idioms, full of humour, colour and piquant harmonies. The audience was then thanked with Twinkle Toes by James Parker, which made a perfect encore to the evening.

Throughout this recital, Cioffi was accompanied by Ramona Zammit Formosa, whose polished and poised playing provided the necessary support. It was also great to see Zammit Formosa move from the delicate and intricate baroque works into the final jazzy pieces with ease.

The only disappointment with this concert was simply the fact that the programme needed more editing as well as more information on this Young Artist scheme, including upcoming events. Otherwise, I hope to see more of this project in the coming months.