Concert
Concerto for Maria
Véronique Vella, piano
MPO/dir. Brian Schembri
Manoel Theatre

Maria Ghirlando

Maria Ghirlando died almost five years ago. She was a colleague and much esteemed reviewer and gave that up when she became a member of the Manoel Theatre Management Committee on which she served for 17 years.

She was also a pianist, and one imagines that it was inevitable that the work commissioned in her memory by her husband Robert should be one featuring the piano.

Ghirlando asked Véronique Vella, who is a composer and pianist, to write a concerto for piano and orchestra. She premiered this Concerto for Maria to an almost full house.

We only have a handful of female composers, so it was refreshing to hear a new work by one of them, and who also happens to be the first Maltese lady with a PhD, in composition. Completed in 2013, the concerto follows the traditional three-movement pattern but technically draws upon several different genres and although Vella never knew Maria it could be said that latter’s well-known predilection for music by composers as diverse as Bach, Chopin, Debussy and Stravinsky could have influenced the composer.

Again, the fact that the two ladies never met did not prevent those who knew Maria from feeling that at several points they could somehow imagine different aspects of her character.

In my opinion one strong impression was provided by the fact that there is no overt showing off in the writing for piano. It is not to say that the writing is easy-going all the way. Several different feelings mark the work, such as the serene orchestral opening starkly contrasting with the mood-changing piano entry. There were occasional flashes of dramatic passages, especially in the more turbulent Con Moto second movement. These were offset by dance-like effects mainly stated by the orchestra with the piano going smoothly along with them. Multi-rhythmic variety in the concluding Still and Sustained closing movement did project a sense of stillness as well as the return of cool-sounding dance-like passages the joy and levity of which run like a thread throughout the work.

The stillness of the conclusion was even more persuasively brought home not only by going back to the opening bars, but by being sustained at even greater length with the warmest possible contribution of the strings.

The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra was on great form and had warmed up considerably to Carmelo Pace’s Sinfonietta of 1939, revised and expanded by the composer in 1966. It was the kind of pioneering music not very well-known here 75 years ago. The final version’s three movements reveal a very personal style, very fine orchestration and despite being considered as one of Pace’s most abstract works, acts as a vehicle for a very strong projection of moods one could hardly associate with the general personal impression the composer ever gave.

The melancholic character of Ravel’s Pavane pour une enfante défunte came across warmly and mindful of the intrinsic sensitivity underling the work and could not be more contrasting than the concert’s concluding work.

This was Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 in E flat major, Op. 70. Deliberately brash and sardonic in places this was a very much in-your-face creation meant, whether directly or not, to be a challenge to the ‘all-knowing’ gurus who sought to dictate what Soviet composers should or should not write. It is this combative spirit which endears the composer to so many. It is with great satisfaction that Brian Schembri’s deep understanding of the work which could draw the best out of the orchestra whether with passages highlighting various individual sections or as a full team.

Indeed such teamwork produced that same exciting effect which popularised this and other works to survive and thrive and to provide worldwide enjoyment and pleasure.