Anthony Harts reviews this year’s Malta International Organ Festival and finds a highly-successful third edition that brought the beauty of organ music to the people.
The magnificent Toccata and Fugue in D Minor started the grand finale of the third Malta International Organ Festival. The concert gave us the opportunity to hear the flamboyant Italian organist and conductor Elena Sartori in a concert featuring the organ of the Anglican Pro-Cathedral of St Paul and a chamber orchestra.
Albinoni’s concerto for oboe was performed to perfection by Chiara Telleri. Her controlled playing, especially in the slow movement was superb.
Other works performed were Corelli’s Concerto Fatto per la Notte di Natale and Handel’s Organ Concertos in G Minor and F Major.
This was the climax of the 19-day festival featuring 17 concerts, now an established event in Malta. Combining both foreign and Maltese organists this festival attracted artists from 10 countries. It was an opportunity to hear both the organists and organs in 10 churches in Malta. As the previous years, the festival was taken to Gozo where concerts were held in Xaghra and Fontana parish churches.
Having been asked to review highlights of this festival, I found it to be an impossible task. Each concert had its own highlights, and each presented a different aspect of works for organ. It would be impossible to review all 19 concerts in the space of the 800 or so words allotted to this report.
With a festival as professional as this one it is difficult to highlight performances. Each concert and performance created their own highlights and it is in the opinion of the listener which were ones that appealed to them, a matter of taste.
Instead, I have decided to highlight some of the unique qualities of this festival.
The first thing to notice is that, apart from four concerts, performances were free. The concerts where the seats were charged was due to the cost of ‘hiring’ the venue and the charges were to cover this additional cost.
Other than that, full houses were able to enjoy and appreciate top international artists at no cost. The charge for the remaining four concerts were modest in comparison to the charges for other, heavily-sponsored, festivals organised in Malta.
An international festival worthy of its title
The festival was truly a festival for the people. The concerts were brought to the local parish churches where local and visitors alike were able to hear some of Malta’s hidden cultural assets, the organ, played by top international performers, and to appreciate the full range of these magnificent instruments, which are mainly used once or twice a week to accompany the mass and are used just to accompany modest hymns.
It was possible to hear a range of organs from 17th-century single manual instruments to multiannual 20th-century models, which gave a unique overview of the wealth of cultural assets contained in the parish churches in our islands.
Without the support of an administration department to organise the events and to ensure smooth running of the events, an army of front of house staff to collect tickets, distribute programmes and usher audiences to their seats the events were extremely well organised, albeit virtually single handed by the festival’s artistic director Joseph Lia, ably supported by his immediate family at the concerts.
Despite having a full-time job and an increasing international singing career Lia was able to produce an international festival worthy of its title.
Credit must be given to his foresight and sheer hard work in organising, raising sponsorships. We must bear in mind that to bring international performers to our small island is no cheap task and to be able to present the concerts free. As well as providing a seamless programme, Lia also manged to perform in several of the concerts.
As usual, despite the pressures of the festival, he performed as any true professional to perfection. This was highlighted in the concert at the Balzan parish church, where he performed the Salve Regina of Caccini to a packed, extremely appreciative, audience. This particular concert featured different settings of the Ave Maria, including little performed works by Joseph Fenech, Andreas Ubio and Lorenc.
This year also included a first performance of a contemporary work, St Paul’s Shipwreck and Serpent performed by the Malta Philharmonic Brass Ensemble conducted by Geoffrey Alvarez. Lasting over 40 minutes, this met with mixed emotions, applauded by some while others virtually walked out of the venue.
Throughout the festival, the packed audiences could appreciate works ranging from early Baroque through to contemporary works, and which included some improvisations from the performers themselves.
It can only be hoped that Joseph Lia will be given the support to enable a fourth and many other editions of this important festival to take place.