Flautist Silvio Zammit and wife, pianist Ramona Zammit Formosa, performed a programme of works arranged for flute and piano.Recitals
Zammit Formosa Flute and Piano Duo
Franciscan Oratory, Valletta
Two absolutely lovely venues ideal for intimate recitals featured concerts bubbling with Christmas spirit.
At the Franciscan oratory in Republic Street the popular duo flautist Silvio Zammit and his wife, pianist Ramona Zammit Formosa, performed a programme of works all of which were arranged for flute and piano by Silvio Zammit. At such concerts music by Handel is always de rigueur, that composer’s Messiah being a wealthy source indeed, and the concert began with the duo’s performance of the Overture followed by the Pastorale.
From the same work the pianist performed That Sheep May Safely Graze, later turning to another solo arrangement of John Rutter’s Christmas Lullaby. With their usual attention to detail and expressive interpretation, the duo gave further lovely warm renderings of Schubert’s Ave Maria, then turning to Bach with Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.
A work which went down very well with the mainly-foreign audience that packed the oratory was Emanuele Galea’s perennial Christmas favourite, the three-movement Sinfonia Pastorale. The concluding offering was a carol medley consisting of Tu scendi dalle stelle, Away in a Manger and Gloria in Excelsis. Keen on getting in more music, the duo definitely concluded with I Know Him so Well from Rice/Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar.
St James’ Consort – Leader Sarah Spiteri
Jesuit Oratory, Valletta
Some days later, in the tea-time Sunday fortnightly concerts series at the Jesuit Oratory, the Malta University’s Research Innovation and Development Trust presented the well-honed St James’s Concert led by Sarah Spiteri in a number of less familiar works which highlighted the differences between baroque Christmas music in the French and Italian styles. Each piece was introduced by Sarah Spiteri and began with the only French piece, Michel Corrette’s Trio Sonata for treble and continuo which also featured guest flautist Clara Galea. Based on an old German hymn, this work is alternatively known as Concerto Noël Allemand in three movements following the fast/slow/fast pattern.
Being in the French style this beautiful work has no pastorale. There was an unusually-long passage in the concluding allegro when the continuo performers engaged in a long dialogue: cellist Jacob Portelli very deftly taking the lead in this long chatter with Alex Vella Gregory at the keyboard.
The rest of the programme was, in Spiteri’s words, devoted to the “- inis” because the pieces were by Manfredini, Valentini and Ferrandini.
The line-up of the consort was not always the same because at one time there were four violins and continuo and at another there was an additional violin and cello with, at the very end, a full complement including again Clara Galea and another guest flautist, Laura Cioffi.
A true pleasure which also did justice to Manfredini’s Christmas Symphony Op. 2 N.12, Valentini’s Christmas Symphony Op. 1 N. 12 and Ferrandini’s Concerto fatto per la Notte di Natale. This had a rather long extended opening movement with the consort’s full complement for the concert taking part.