Simon Schembri dealt with the concert challenges with his usual aplomb.Concert
Simon Schembri and Baroque Ensemble de Toulouse
All Souls Church, Valletta
The French presence during the second edition of the Valletta International Baroque Festival has been a very strong one. And very good too, one may add.
The last ‘French’ connection for this edition was the concert presented by guitarist Simon Schembri who is Maltese but who has been living in France for many years now. He was here performing with, and directing, the Baroque Ensemble de Toulouse.
The concert began with Boccherini’s Quintet No. 4 in G Major for guitar and strings. This arrangement allowed the guitar to make its voice heard by keeping the strings in a rather subdued accompanying role, or else exchanging motifs in a kind of polite and low-key conversation.
The main contrasting voice was heard in the closing allegro
This is not to say that some passages were quite powerful at times and, for all concerned, there was also a charming Spanish tinge to the music, especially in the concluding fandango in which the cellist clicked away with a pair of castanets.
The concert proceeded with Alessandro Marcello’s Concerto in D minor (arr. Alexandre Lagoya from an original for harpsichord). This concerto is also very well known for a famous arrangement for oboe soon after it was composed and, particularly, for its sublimely beautiful adagio.
From this point onwards, the performance featured guitar solo and the whole ensemble with Schembri as soloist/director.
This partnership worked very well in the interpretation, not only of this lovely work but for the rest of the concert, the first half of which ended with a fine rendering of Handel’s Concerto in A Major. This was in an arrangement by Carlos Barbosa-Lima from the original in B flat Major for harp.
The second half of the concert, dedicated to three works by Vivaldi, began with my personal favourite of them all, the Concerto in D Major arranged by Lagoya of the original for lute. This has what is perhaps one of the most gorgeous slow movements (a largo) in baroque music, the nature of which is molto cantabile, even if not precisely indicated as such.
It contrasts very well with the much more energetic outer movements which came across with full zest, crisp precision and technical finish.
The Concerto in A Major, arranged by Emilio Pujol from a trio Sonata for Violin, Lute and Continuo is of a completely different character, the main trait of which is a kind of subdued serenity which dominates the first two movements, the opening allegro non molto quasi andante. Hence the opening was hardly in the usual exuberant way Vivaldi begins his concertos.
The larghetto was even softer and the main contrasting voice was heard in the closing allegro.
The concert concluded with Concerto in C Major arranged by Fernand Obradous from an original for mandolin. Indeed, the arrangement is such that it is very easy to somehow perceive the shadow of that instrument. The work, like its predecessors, lends itself very well to an arrangement for guitar and the technical challenges for the soloist were deftly dealt with the usual aplomb one expects of Schembri.