This year’s Arts’ Festival from July 1 to 23 is dedicated as a whole to the memory of Charles Camilleri, and, in fact, it is being inaugurated with the premiere in Malta of his New Ideas Symphony. How important do you consider this event to be?

It is very timely. At the moment there is renewed discussion about Maltese identity. A decision has to be taken that clearly focuses the self-image we want to present in support of the bid of Valletta, as the epitome of our islands as a whole, to be submitted before next October for our Capital City’s confirmation as the cultural capital of Europe in 2018.

Camilleri certainly has claims to be one of the artists who has most successfully projected our national identity to the world. When we were both schoolboys at the Lyceum, he used to tell me that his great ambition in life was to do for Malta what Chopin had done for Poland.

This year he would have celebrated his 80th birthday. He would have been still refining his projection of Maltese identity.

In the early years in the late 1940s as when for instance he played on the accordion the musical core of what later was to become known as his Mediterranean concerto at a variety show organised for Lyceum students by the late Mr Burgess (on which occasion, incidentally, I convinced myself that I could not carve out a career for myself as a clown) Camilleri was already abstracting sounds that placed Malta in its Mediterranean context.

Later on, he broadened this context not merely to the global, but actually to the cosmic. The broader the context, the more specifically defined was theidentification of the Maltese soundscape.

It is in this way that it is evoked in the New Ideas Symphony. This work which was commissioned by our lifelong friend, Edward de Bono, may be considered as the spiritual testament of the composer. He had never before written a symphony, because of his preference for shorter and more open textured works, but he responded to the lateral thinker’s invitation by producing a still concise work, the originality of which is precisely that it is a sort of summation of the essence of his opus.

The New Ideas Symphony has already been performed in Brussels and in Paris (thanks also to the support of Madame Dewavrin). The opportunity of hearing it should not be missed by anyone who is interested in understanding the Maltese identity both in depth and as a future projection.

What else is the Arts Festival providing?

As in previous editions, allthe varied events seem to be of excellent quality. The organisers have not accepted my insistence that the festival should have as sharply focused an identity as it is generally acknowledged there should be in Valletta’s bid to be the Cultural Capital of Europe.

Some identification marks are nevertheless emerging, in addition to quality. Some performers who were very successful in previous years are also performing this year, such as the Cello magician, Enrico Dindo, and the Laboratorio di Castaldo.

The latter are also providing workshops in actor training and have the collaboration of Mario Frendo in the direction of their comic performance about the end of the world. Consequently our expectations are high about attention to rhythm not just in the musical element.

There are also signs of a Mediterranean cultural awareness. No doubt the dance-drama Barbarossa project, coming from Istanbul’s offer as last year’s European Capital of Culture, will be doubly intriguing since, I presume, it will depict as a hero a pirate whom we Maltese have been brought up to regard as adiabolic enemy.

Moreover, the Kronos Quartet will also regale us with exhilarating sounds from across the Mediterranean if they live up to their reputation, recalling Camilleri’s magnificent efforts at synthesising North African and Middle Eastern music.

Francesca Grima’s Flamenco Ring has at least four reasons to be present: she has been most successful in past years, she is one of Malta’s artistic exports whom the festival promotes in their native country, she presents a typically Mediterranean art-form and contributes to this year’s richer than usual cornucopia of dance.

Almost in celebration of the first year of dance studies at both first degree and postgraduate level at University there will be a creation of a new work, a variant on a classic mythical paradigm, ’00:00-00-01’ under the direction of Mavin Khoo. He brings marvellously together a synthesis of both Far Eastern and Western dancetraditions, and he is a specialistin exploring gender relations in performance.

In addition, there is also anAustrian Moon Fantasy and a real embarrassment of artistic pleasures to choose from.

Do you think sufficient space is being given to local talent and that performances are reaching out beyond Valletta in anticipation of what is to happen in 2018?

Besides the artists already mentioned, there is a performance by the Big Band Brothers and to top it all Carmina Burana with the world-renowned but happilyValletta-based Wayne Marshall as conductor.

I myself am, of course, particularly pleased that there will be a food and wine festival stretching from South to Strait Street, and besides Argotti there will be performances at other favourite sites of mine, notably Bighi.

Fr Peter Serracino Inglott was talking to Miriam Vincenti.