Karl Mifsud and Charlene Farrugia.It was a rare event and a highly enjoyable one when Karl Mifsud (viola) joined forces with pianist Charlene Farrugia in recital at the Sala Isouard. This well-attended performance was part of the Manoel Theatre’s Spotlight series.
The event was not so common because, let us face it, recitals with the viola as protagonist are exactly that, even abroad. This element of rarity is not to dismiss lightly the role of the piano which, in practically all the works chosen, had a very important part.
Evidence enough of this was in the first choice for the evening, Schumann’s Fantasiestücke Op. 73, more familiar in the clarinet, violin or cello versions.
The viola’s sonority served it well as it, too, could at times remind one of the human voice in three pieces which are practically songs without words. The fantasy form also allowed both performers to project to the full the contrasting moods of the pieces, which ran a wide gamut of feeling combining a deep musicality with the sound technique needed to render this possible.
It was much the same in Glinka’s unfinished Sonata in D Minor for Viola and Piano, nothing like which had ever been penned by a Russian composer.
The two instruments were very complementary to each other and the piano’s support crucial
This was to be a much appreciated rarity, and frankly stood well in its extant two-movement form. The opening allegro moderato was a well-restrained but at the same time in a lyrical easily flowing manner.
The larghetto ma non troppo had an initially melodiously warm well-defined romantic aura, which contrasted highly with a darkly dramatic second part which gave the music a touch of completeness and achievement.
Much to the delight of viola players, Romania’s best-known composer Enescu (also a great violinist) composed a Konzertstück for Viola and Piano when 25. Because it looks back at the peak of the romantic idiom of the previous century, it could be virtually considered as a precious addition to the dearth of viola literature which characterises that century.
The two instruments were very complementary to each other and the piano’s support crucial when it was necessary for the viola to assert its leadership in the various passages leading to climaxes.
These occurred when the work’s dominant theme appeared here and there in various forms and guises, and in places owing much to some clearly discernible influences on the young composer’s mind.
Even more crucial was the duo’s collaboration and rapport in Franck’s Sonata in A Major. One must confess here a supreme partiality for the original for violin and piano.
At the same time, having only been exposed to that as well to some rare performances of the version for cello (the only other version sanctioned by Franck), one was curious as to what the effect would be in a version for viola.
Well it was not all that sur-prising that this version could be pretty exciting. An accomplished and intelligent performer like Farrugia could deal with the extremely difficult and important piano part. The latter complemented the equally difficult string part Mifsud had to perform. The sharing of the thematic material and the wide range of different moods pervading this great work came along in wave after wave of frequently intense, passionate, cyclic music.
Yet, this was often tempered by calmer passages of exquisite tenderness, and thus viola and piano could tap this varying range of feeling very effectively.
As an encore, the duo performed an early work by Frank Bridge, the exuberant, lively and expansive Allegro Appassionato.