Concert
Musica Nova Duo:
Massimo Bonfils, violin; Luca Minrevino, guitar
Santa Marija ta’ Bir Miftuħ chapel

The festival rolls on and the third concert in the 19th Bir Miftuħ International Music Festival, organised by Din l-Art Ħelwa, was sponsored by the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute.

It featured a violin and guitar duo whose choice was entirely devoted to three arrangements of overtures to and a fantasy of various operas by composer Gioachino Antonio Rossini.

These were not arranged by the composer: in three overtures they were by one of the most famous Italian guitarists of his time, Ferdinando Carulli, a contemporary of the great Mauro Giuliani.

The sole fantasy, that on themes from the opera Tancredi, was by Francesco Molino.

Like the above guitarist-composers, Molino was also a contemporary of Rossini’s.

A violin and guitar duo is a very popular and widespread formation and the great Niccolò Paganini himself wrote dozens of work for it as he was no mean guitarist.

What one liked about Musica Nova Duo is that it was an unusual combination of musicians who, while separated by a wide age gap, could perform well together

While the composers in the evening’s programmes were more renowned as guitarists, they knew that the violin’s possibilities are far superior to the guitar’s.

It explains why the violin dominates most of the time although at times, the guitar is not simply reduced to a mere accompanying instrument and is given a chance to make its own thematic statements.

What one liked about Musica Nova Duo is that it was an unusual combination of musicians who, while separated by a wide age gap, could perform well together. They are also both very experienced and indeed there was an excellent rendering of the first Carulli arrangement, that of the sparkling overture to Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

This made it all the more surprising that frankly, the overture to La Gazza Ladra was highly disappointing, especially on the part of the violin which went off-key first in several parts of the march-like introductory theme and later peppered liberally in many other sections.

It also affected the coordination between violin and guitar. This unevenness stood out even more because Molino’s Fantasy in Tancredi was mercifully rendered in a much better and less laboured manner.

Some more unevenness surfaced in the last Carulli arrangement, that to the overture of La Cenerentola but to a much lesser degree.

Then the graph of achievement soared high again in what was perhaps the best piece of the evening, the encore. This was Paganini’s Sonata No. 1 from his Centone di 18 sonate per violino e chitarra. It was utterly delightful.