Years ago, like so many others, I was bewitched (as there is no better word) not only by the sheer beauty of the music but also the technical cartoon wizardry of Walt Disney’s Fantasia.

I was already familiar with a great part of the repertoire, mainly thanks to radio and Rediffusion. Hearing the music and seeing the animation in all Disney’s artistry brought home each episode with thrilling effect. Whether in story form or just beautiful abstract designs, the result provided a different dimension.

It was an extremely laudable and very well-supported initiative on the part of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra to have presented two live performances of a good part of the sound-track coordinating it with a projection of the film.

There were matinée and evening performances at the Mediterranean Conference Centre’s Republic Hall, the latter of which under review here. I missed J.S. Bach’s most famous Toccata and Fugue and Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain but as compensation there was Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March N. 1 which had been left out in the original 1940 film.

The performance could not have been better synchronised with each and every part being on perfect cue. Bar a split-second “crack” or two in the audio system it was smooth going all the way. The orchestra was on very good form and Brian Schembri’s direction was dynamic, full of zest, well in control and sensitively projected the music in all its facets.

The visual delight was enhanced the immediacy of the music and both elements were perfectly complementary. It would be almost absurd to single out which was the best rendered piece. The opening movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was majestic and authoritative and the last three movements of his Sixth Symphony complete with stormy moments contrasting with idyllic pastoral ones were well-etched.

Debussy’s Claire de Lune almost made the pale splendour of moonlight glow with warmth. The sight and sound of little mushrooms turning into tiny Chinese dancers and thistles metamorphosing as Cossacks in Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite was nigh irresistible.

The dramatic moments and the way a tremendous climax was built up in Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite saw the MPO at its most powerful. More comical was The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas as well as Ponchielli’s La Danza dell Ore with its elephant and hippo ballerinas.

Elgar’s March was all pomp and circumstance of course, with movements 1, 3 and 4 from Respighi’s very vivid tone poem I Pini di Roma. These were the pines of Villa Borghese, the Gianicolo and Via Appia, in the last of which the unstoppable march of conquering Roman legions was very effectively evoked and brought home.

A welcome encore was offered, the final parade from The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns.

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