The 2012 Din l-Art Ħelwa Bir Miftuħ Music Festival came to a triumphant end with an exquisite recital by a French violin and cello duo. This final concert was sponsored by the French Embassy in Malta, and proved to be a fitting end to what is now one of Malta’s best music festivals.
From the very start the musicians established a very contained sound-world. Every note and nuance was carefully controlled- Alex Vella Gregory
The duo, consisting of Agnes Pyka on the violin and Edouard Sapey-Triomphe on the cello, made a formidable duo. They had a great rapport between them, and were perfectly in sync throughout.
The programme itself was as intense as they get. There were only two items on the programme, but both were massive works.
Ravel’s Sonata for Violin & Cello is really and truly a masterpiece, and Kodaly’s Duo Op. 7 was not any less demanding.
Each work explores very powerful emotions. Perhaps the only criticism that could be levelled is that these two works together can be very demanding on the listener. Then again, I am not complaining.
Ravel’s Sonata is a four-movement work that belongs to his later mature works. It also shows the profound effect that World War I had on the composer’s style. It contains some of Ravel’s most austere writing, at times verging on the atonal.
From the very start, the musicians established a very contained sound-world. Every note and nuance was carefully controlled, an approach that is necessary to better understand Ravel’s style.
This is not to say that the interpretation was mechanical. On the contrary there were moments of extreme poignancy such as in the third movement. This contrasted beautifully with the faster movements, and the finale, with its Spanish rhythms, brought the whole work to a breathtaking conclusion.
The Kodaly Duo is a completely different kettle of fish. Far removed from the cosmopolitan madness of Ravel’s Paris, Kodaly turned to his native Hungary for inspiration.
His work brings together the nationalistic trends and musical modernism to create a very particular musical language.
The Duo, written at the very outset of the war, belongs to a period when Kodaly was a relatively unknown figure in Western music. Yet, it is a work of great sophistication. It blends Hungarian folk-idiom and contrapuntal writing with intense Romanticism.
Both musicians adapted their playing style to suit the music, and in general there was greater intensity in their playing. They made the most of the broad melodies that pervade the whole work.
The evening proved a more pleasant one than the previous week’s concert, when multiple distractions marred most of the performance.
The same photographer was still there, and although I still think it was distracting and totally unnecessary, he was slightly less intrusive than before.
The evening finished with an encore of the slow movement from Ravel’s Sonata, an odd choice for an encore, but still a beautiful ending.