The incomparable setting of the grounds of the Inquisitor’s Palace at Girgenti vibrated to the sound of music performed by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra as well as to that of some new young voices. The concert, which was presented by Moira Delia, consisted of mainly classical pieces with a dose of lighter music.

The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra

The MPO was directed by Alan Chircop, and it was the first time that I heard the MPO, or any orchestra really, under his baton. I liked his precision and attention to detail, which were tempered by a certain flexibility that achieved results and, at times, was spoilt by often insistently premature applause.

The crisply decisive reading of the overture to Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, which opened the concert, was followed by what one could consider the revelation of the evening. This was 14-year-old soprano Raisa Marie Micallef, singing with marvellous ease and conviction Franck’s Panis Angelicus. Hers is a truly beautiful, crystal clear voice wherein lurk shadows of a potentially high mezzo voice.

Raisa Marie Micallef

In different style was the lovely flow coming across in her singing of Lloyd Webber’s Wishing You Were Somewhere Here Again, from The Phantom of the Opera. This girl will go places if she takes singing seriously.

Another older young lady from Israel, Esther Allayeva, has a rather nice voice too, and sang well, although she was a bit over-dramatic in her interpretation of Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro, from Gianni Schicchi. Later, she sang with the right verve and panache Heia! Heia!, from Kálmán’s Die Czardasfürstin.

The concert consisted of mainly classical pieces with a dose of lighter music

Baritone Gilbert Delicata has a soothingly warm timbre and sang rather better than the only other time I heard him singing solo, perhaps some two years ago. During this concert he sang Dermot Macmurrough’s rather poignant Macushla, which sailed along fine, except for some hints of strain at the top.

The purely instrumental music proceeded with Grieg’s Magical Morning, and the contrasting and highly rhythmic In the Hall of the Mountain King, both from the incidental music to Ibsen’s Peer Gynt. Tchaikovsky’s music always finds a place in these concerts and, this time, it was a selection consisting of Scene and Dance of the Little Swans from Swan Lake, the waltz from The Sleeping Beauty and March and Trepak from Nutcracker.

Esther Allayeva

All lovely readings, which made one’s blood react to those various dance rhythms and the colourful images they evoked. It was the same case with Piazzolla’s Libertango.

Most serious and profound was the sweeping, sublime nobility of Elgar’s inspirational Nimrod, ninth of the Engima Variations. As a friend sitting in front of me rightly said when it was over, one has to believe there is a God when one hears music like this.

As usual, the concert’s official end was to be followed by a fireworks display but, unfortunately, this was let off a little too prematurely, well before the Farandole from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite N. 2 – which was performed with all possible zest, but without getting out of hand. There were two encores – Johann Strauss II’s Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, followed by Johann Strauss I’s Radetzky March.

As in other editions of this series of annual concerts, there was an appeal for generous donations in aid of NGOs caring for abandoned animals in various sanctuaries.