Joseph Vella (left) and Philip Attard playing Guy Lacour’s Suite en duo. Photo: Joe Peel

Concert
Christine Zerafa, pianist; Philip Attard, Joseph Vella, Antonio Mollica, Hayrapet Arakelyan, saxophonists
Robert Samut Hall, Floriana

The first edition of the Malta Saxophone Festival, held at the Robert Samut Hall in Floriana, ended last weekend with a concert by the Big Band Brothers dedicated to the memory of Val Valente.

It was the culmination of a series of masterclasses, workshops, talks, lessons, lectures and concerts which must have proved to be a very hard job to coordinate for artistic director Christine Dimech and her team.

Under review here is the penultimate concert which featured an exciting mix of saxophone and piano playing by some very accomplished performers, both local and foreign.

The opening work was Charles Camilleri’s three-movement Divertimento No.1, originally for piano and two clarinets, but here in an arrangement for alto and soprano saxophones.

Christine Zerafa was at the piano with Philip Attard (alto sax) and Antonino Mollica (soprano sax). Subtitled En homage à Manuel de Falla, the work echoes hints of that composer, especially in the highly rhythmic outer movements. The work is evenly shared by the three instruments and made a fine textural blend.

Joseph Vella (tenor sax) and Attard proceeded with Guy Lacour’s Suite en duo, a composition for two alto saxophones written in 1971, in five movements in alternating fast/slow pattern. It makes some difficult demands on the performers, who have to maintain balance, yet, as in the fast movements, still have to remain clear in the rapid virtuoso passages. The slow movements are very brief and the second one, a sort of ‘grave’, led almost immediately to the finale.

Mollica and Hayrapet Arakelyan, the German-based Armenian virtuoso (soprano sax), performed a transcription of Béla Bartók’s Duo for Two Violins. Its six brief movements, inspired by Hungarian folk music, came across as a charming set which got livelier as it approached the brilliant end.

The next two works were for a soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone (SATB) saxophone formation, with Arakleyan (soprano sax), Attard (alto sax), Vella (tenor sax) and Mollica (baritone sax).

The concert featured an exciting mix of saxophone and piano playing by some very accomplished performers

They first performed an arrangement of three movements from Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite, Op.40 (Sarabande, Gavotte, Rigaudon) displaying very good ensemble work. The other work, Thierry Escaich’s Tango Virtuoso, was a virtuoso piece showcasing and testing the soprano saxophone’s abilities.

Arakelyan saw to that by giving a brilliant performance and was very well supported by the other three saxophonists.

Concluding the concert was a rarity in store, a quintet for piano and SATB saxophones. Zerafa returned to perform a lovely work by Pedro Turalde called Memorias. Its well-shaped three movements include some very beautiful broadly expansive, extended melodies, and it is quite romantic too.