Concert
Music by Mussorgsky, Rakhmaninov, Tchaikovsky
Solo piano: Charlene Farrugia; Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, dir. Brian Schembri
Manoel Theatre

After a recent concert with a strong Italian flavour, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra returned with a change of taste.

One felt a great rapport between the pianist, the director and the orchestra

Its focus, under the direction of Brian Schembri, shifted to Russia, with three works spanning more than seven decades.

The concert began with Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain. Forceful, energetic and menacing almost to demoniac levels, it is to the credit of the musicians and their response to direction that this piece came across so well with all its vastly contrasting elements.

These were so well juxtaposed that were one to be unfamiliar with the piece, one would have thought that the harsh, frightening dissonances of the main, climactic body of the work and the gently lyrical, serene final section could never have belonged to the same work. All was done, one noticed, with a minimum of fuss.

By the time the exiled Rakhmaninov wrote the third and final version of his Fourth Piano Concerto – performed with Charlene Farrugia at the keyboard – the Russia he knew had long vanished unlike his gifted melodic vein.

This was so prominent in the central largo and was sensitively projected by the young performer. Neither did his colourful orchestration lack; it was in parts marked here and there by jazz influences.

Farrugia is a wisp of a girl but lest that appearance should mislead the unwary, she proved that within that sylph-like frame she has tremendous drive and energy, power and determination and, most of all, she possesses a sharply keen musical intelligence and maturity that saw her magnificently through this work.

One felt a great rapport between her, the director and the orchestra. They sailed through some greatly difficult shoals in some extremely rich rhythmical passages which almost had everybody at cross-purpose; but it was clear that this was meant to create drama and tension.

The not-so-frequent ornamented passages in the opening movement contrasted with an opposite richness in the concluding allegro vivace.

At the end Farrugia almost flew off the stool in a combination of relief and satisfaction at a job well done. She richly deserved the loud plaudits of the audience whom she regaled with Skryabin’s Prelude for left hand, Opus 9.

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony remains popular because it has all those elements which make his symphonic music attractive to many. These too were well projected in this reading.

The richly melodious and lyrical sections, as opposed to the more brash and, yes, almost barbaric outburst, were there and the drama intensified especially during that great struggle against that ominous fate motif. There was an exciting and inevitable build-up to the final climax.

One remembers Mro Schembri directing this symphony years ago,with a smaller complement of musicians, yet that performance was no less exciting.

This time one felt and saw that the conductor obtained the same results with the minimum of fuss, as noticed earlier in the concert, but with the same authority and perfection.