German harpist Silke Aichhorn and Abkhazian pianist Sofiya Narmanya recently performed solo and duo pieces in a concert presented by Din l-Art Ħelwa at Our Lady of Victory church in Valletta. Reputed to be the city’s oldest building, the church was also the focus of a special commemoration of the 450th anniversary of our capital city’s foundation.

The church was embellished and modified well over a century later and Alessio Erardi’s frescoes covering the entire ceiling of this little jewel date to that phase. Over the years, owing to neglect and natural causes, the frescoes seemed doomed to disappear for good until Din L-Art Ħelwa undertook a massive restoration project which, after several years’ hard work was completed and officially inaugurated some weeks ago.

The two performers on the night are both very accomplished soloists in their own right. Yet, at the same time, they balanced one another with great ease when playing as a duo. Their excellent rapport was projected to the audience in the ideally-intimate atmosphere provided by the little church. On top of it all, Aichhorn proved to be a very good communicator when she introduced various pieces. This was especially evident when she introduced her solos, speaking about the technique required for playing the pedal chromatic harp and the special arrangements either by other renowned harpists or by herself.

Their excellent rapport was projected to the audience in the intimate atmosphere provided by the church

The programme included some all-time favourites, beginning with Pachelbel’s famous Canon, as arranged by Sylvia Woods. The atmosphere remained partly-baroque and partly-romantic with the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria performed as a harp solo (to arrangements by Karl Oberthur). It was performed with great skill and feeling and sounded as if there were two harps, not one.

Narmanya delved into the classical/romantic world of Beethoven’s so-called Moonlight Sonata with well-etched far-reaching contrasts. Possibly the most memorable harp solo was Hans Trnecek’s arrangement of Smetana’s Vltava. It could be that familiarity with the original orchestral version played a part in quite-easily imagining the harp sounding very much like a whole orchestra.

Only towards the very end did one get a very slight inkling that something was amiss and, indeed, it was because before her next solo Aichhorn had to change one of the shorter strings.

She took the opportunity to explain what she was doing and why, besides having a general chat about the instrument. This meant that the instrument, kindly on loan from the MPO, was in full fettle for the Aichhorn arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker.

Famous for its long harp introduction in the original score, it was lovely to hear this popular waltz as a harp solo.

In between these two harp solos, Narmanya plumbed calmer, soothing – if deeper – waters in Liszt’s Liebestraum and provided her fine interpretation of another type of waltz. This was Chopin’s Waltz in C# Minor Op. 64, N. 3. This highly enjoyable recital was concluded with an arrangement for harp and piano by John Thomas of Schubert’s Ave Maria.

The work remains charming when stated once with one repetition. But this arrangement, which called for a second repetition, tended to drag things. This Schubert piece was given as an encore, after all the speeches had been delivered – wisely enough, only with one repetition.