Concert
European Union Youth Orchestra, dir. Krzysztof Urbanski
Pjazza Teatru Rjal, Valletta
The European Union Youth Orchestra’s summer tour 2013 brought the roughly 125-strong orchestra to our shores.
Billed as probably the biggest orchestral line-up ever in these islands, this orchestra consists of young performers from all 28 member states of the EU. It includes two local violinists, Jean-Noël Attard, leader of the second violin section, and Nadine Galea. I think it would have been a nice gesture were these two youngsters to be individually presented to the public but they were not.
Tenor Joseph Calleja was supposed to have been presented with the special Great Europeans Award. The granting of the award was mentioned at the evening’s beginning and had also been announced on radio but, for some reason, the presentation did not take place. The concert was under the patronage of President George Abela.
The EUYO turned out to be a formidable ensemble of great talent and their precision, cohesion and discipline was put to the test in a most unusual manner. This was the first time I was hearing Ravel’s Bolero with no conductor in sight. It had been rehearsed so well that they proved they could do it. The build-up to that great, concluding climax, which sounded so grim and barbaric, was excellently wrought.
I did try but could not ignore something which greatly hindered concentration. This was the regular bang of petards coming across Grand Harbour courtesy of the St Lawrence feast celebrations. Had Ravel wanted, he could have easily scored this inclusion of such effects!
It happened again, for the best part of Prokofiev’s frequently ‘wild’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor. With its frequently jagged rhythms, relentless assault on the senses and its many sardonic touches, tempered by a greatly contrasting tenderness in the intermezzo, the work has enough in-built excitement that it needs no external augmenting factors. Neither is an amplified piano ideal but soloist Alexander Romanovsky played with great bravura and showed his ample versatility when he followed the concerto with an encore, performing a lovely piece by Chopin.
During his address before the concert started, Culture Parliamentary Secretary José Herrera, referring to the new use to which the site of the Royal Opera House has been put, rightly remarked that this would have its pros and cons. It all depends on opposing points of view considered.
If you ask me, I believe that nothing should hinder the smooth flow of music, distract attention from it, and that all should be at its service. Considering local conditions, whether climatic or traditional realities, an open-air space, no matter how glorified, is doomed to fail. If one were willing to treat music almost as if it were background music and let other things spoil for attention, that is what one gets.
Neither is it practical to start a concert very late so as to avoid the sound of festa petards, noisy closing of shop shutters, a bell or two and general noise from the street outside. Dismissing a roofed space is nonsensical and utter folly.
As it happened, it was Ravel’s brilliant orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition that fared best and was practically ‘unmolested’. Well, except for some latecomers who were unable to walk on tiptoe while still outside the seating space. In one case, one person had the nerve and gall to make a noisy ascent back to her place! Why they should be allowed in before a reasonable break is beyond me. Lack of respect was also shown by a few at the very beginning of the concert and who continued looking for their places while the national anthem and EU anthem were being played.
Back to Mussorgsky’s piece, Pictures at an Exhibition was vividly brought to life halfway on; however, the ox-cart set was a bit off course by a strangely confused tuba. This was a minor hiccup in an ocean of achievement ending in the glorious explosion in The Bogatyr Gates (in the Capital in Kiev). For good measure, the EUYO launched into the sparkling overture to Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila.