President George Abela recently hosted a piano recital in the main salon of Verdala Castle.

Her tone in the upper register is bright and her middle register is very satisfactory- Albert Storace

Christine Zerafa is fresh from a successful Masters Degree (MMus) from the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester.

What are fondly and widely known as ‘The President’s Recitals’ are well-balanced in terms of the musicians’ choice of programme.

Zerafa, who came across as a musician with a warm and very communicative personality, opened her recital with Liszt’s Concert Étude N. 3, in D flat known as Un sospiro.

Her touch was very good and gave full rein to the work’s highly romantic nature.

She then proceeded to perform the main work of the evening. This was one of Beethoven’s popular sonatas, N. 21 in C Op.53 Waldstein.

The comparatively short middle movement Introduzione: adagio molto – attacca serves as a tranquil and very poetic link between the two tempestuous outer movements.

Zerafa’s handling of this brief respite was very good. Her tone in the upper register is bright and her middle register is very satisfactory. It was in the lower register that the music sounded a little bit woolly.

In the allegro con brio some moments of hesitation and uncertainty also crept in, but she very quickly recovered.

Nothing, however, deprived the bulk of the last movement from that uplifting and noble feeling which graces it. The very energetic prestissimo on the whole retained admirably clear articulation.

The recital ended with Skryabin’s Fantasy in B minor, Op, 28. Its ominous, almost threatening beginning was well-projected and gave way to some very expressive music, especially the second subject in this sonata-form work.

There was a visionary touch in the next theme which reeked of almost heedless confidence and later the deep emotional feeling running through the long coda brought about the relief of agreeable tension.

As an encore, Zerafa performed Les Collines d’Anacapri from Debussy’s Preludes, Book I.