Recital
Andriana Yordanova, soprano;Julia Miller, piano
Franciscan Oratory, Valletta

The last Tuesday of the old year saw the real beginning of that end-of-year record cold spell as we had not experienced since 1988.

What better way to deal with it than to listen to some good music in the warm and intimate atmosphere of the little baroque Franciscan oratory? The mostly overseas audience visiting Valletta and packing the oratory found this a welcome break from the inclement weather and was in for a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Accompanied by pianist Julia Miller, Andriana Yordanova, ever willing to broaden her singing horizons, prepared a new programme consisting mainly of songs by Kurt Weill and Dmitry Kabalevsky, with a touch of Victor Herbert.

It was a good and novel way to while away the time with Weill and the rest. Coming as it did in the middle of Yuletide, there was only just a little nod to it in Julia Miller’s solos.

These were jazzy arrangements by Craig Curry of The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, a medley of carols and Holst’s In the Bleak Midwinter.

In the main, the vocal music was dead serious as were the two Kabalevsky songs from his Op. 4, to lyrics by the Russian symbolist poet Aleksandr Blokh. These songs were not sung together but at both ends of the programme.

Like all the songs she chose and all of which dealt with a wide range of different emotions, there was great depth of feeling even if inspired and stimulated by different ideas, perhaps even of certain perceived situations. The first one, The Pan-pipes are Singing at the River, was about the dynamics of the river of life, in which there are still open possibilities. The interpretation allowed for a margin of hope.

Even the first of the Weill songs in this concert had more than a glimmer of hope in it. Indeed, Berlin im Licht is all about a city lit up for an autumn festival and has a very positive air about it and well-reflected in the voice. The irony of it all was that, in a few years, a different kind of light was to illuminate the city, that was brought on through the destruction of war. On a different note was the next Weill song, to words by Brecht. This was sung with a deliberate air of mixed sensuality and levity because within the context of Was die Matrosen sagen from Happy End, the lilting tango of the piece is a diversion from a dangerous situation which could have led to a brawl.

Very different, bitter, hurt and regretful was the excellent rendering of Je ne t’aime pas, even if the words have the protagonist saying that she could not care for the love-object anymore.

The last Weill song was the exotic and Utopian Youkali, with an alluring tango-habanera rhythm and vocal projection to match the mood. This was followed by the Hebert piece Art is Calling Me from The Enchantress which was not without a good dose of cheek and humour.

The mood changed drastically with the second Kabalevsky song The Frosty Night, which dealt with winter’s long seasonal darkness as well as reflections within the dark depths of a troubled human soul.

Being called back for an encore and preferring to end on a happier note, Andreana Yordanova ended with Delibes’s rousing bolero Les Filles de Cadiz.