Karl Mifsud, viola
St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral

The season of fortnightly lunchtime recitals at the Anglican pro-Cathedral came to an end very recently. It did with a most unusual recital which was the result of an almost last-minute change of performer/s. Viola player Karl Mifsud stepped in and the result was probably the first-ever solo viola recital in these islands. More the pity that the audience was such a small one but one which made up for lack of numbers with the warm appreciation of the young performer’s effort.

Works for viola accompanied by piano are comparatively few and far between, for solo viola are rarer still. While the bassoon is considered the “clown” of the orchestra, it is the viola which is the butt of all the orchestral jokes and cracks, and that despite the instrument’s great importance within a standard orchestra. The works presented were from Krzysztof Penderecki’s Cadenza. The work has a certain air of unpredictability about it yet, while it exploits most of the instrument’s range, no matter at which tempo, a certain intensity of mood marked this work. The piece was handled with assurance and great clarity and warmth of tone, with a lot of double-stopping providing the piece with a lot of body and texture.

Reger’s Suite No. 1 in G minor, Opus 131d was the longest work performed during this recital. It was performed in four well-contrasted movements within the second of which there are three distinctly contrasting sections marked vivace-andantino-vivace. There was a pretty disarming tenderness to the andante sostenuto while the molto vivace which crowned the work remained articulate throughout. The concluding work was by the well-known Russian viola-player and teacher Mikhail Kugel, his Prelude Ysaÿe. Karl Mifsud studied with Kugel in Belgium and he endowed this interesting work with a lot of passion, warmth and verve.

• The next season of lunchtime recitals at St Paul’s pro-Cathedral will resume on October 11.

Francesca Aquilina, soprano/Ingrid Sawers, piano
St James Cavalier

Francesca Aquilina had an excellent and supportive British pianist in Ingrid Sawers when she gave a recital consisting of 10 songs and arias. She sang in four languages and the whole lot from memory and the greatest of ease. One thing one notes with pleasure is that she has been doing a lot of hard work on improving her German diction. This was evident in her very first song, Schumann’s sweeping Widmung. It was the same in Berg’s Die Nachtigall. Although this could have been a little heavy for her she carried it off well enough even though there were some signs of wavering pitch in the climaxes. Polishing that department is what this young soprano needs to work on.

Very much in her favour is that she is a born stage person. She has confidence and ease of manner, projects warmth and charm and brings to life anything she interprets. Among her best interpretations were Debussy’s Chevaux de Bois and Fauré’s Claire de Lune; Bellini’s gorgeous arietta Il fervido desiderio; the very mischievous Una donna a quindici anni from Mozart’s Così fan tutte as well as Barber’s Sure On This Shining Night.

Tosti’s Aprile was sung with passionate ardour but needed more work on maintaining pitch in some passages while in other identical ones all was well. Vorrei spiegarvi il giubilo from Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio had a lot of coquettish verve and the interpretation of Quel guardo cavaliere… so anch’io le virtù magiche from Donizetti’s Don Pasquale bubbled with mischievous artifice, likeable roguishness and some good coloratura.