Concert
Cliff Zammit Stevens, tenor;Hannah Sandison, guest soprano
Malta Philharmonic Orchestra/dir. Natalie Murray Beale
Pjazza Teatru Rjal, Valletta

Tiny Malta is indeed blessed with talent and after having been very impressed some months ago with a recital by tenor Nico Darmanin, I am now reviewing the latest concert by Cliff Zammit Stevens.

This was his seventh annual summer concert, most of which I have reviewed. This time, however, it was his first with the MPO and every performance promises something to look forward to: new horizons and new choices.

To begin with, there was also the rarity of having a lady director at the helm, in this case the matter-of-fact and reliable Australian Natalie Murray Beale. She directed with ease yet firmly, and with no undue fuss, adding an elegant, feminine touch to it all.

I found the MPO in excellent shape and form. It was a pity that amplifiers robbed the opening of Il barbiere di Siviglia’s overture of maximum sparkle. It took getting used to, maybe one just does or has to or maybe something was adjusted, which rendered the later orchestral piece, the overture to Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila, one full of verve, energy and warmth.

The Polovstian Dances from Borodin’s Prince Igor were projected with a mix of wild energy, a touch of raw savagery, nostalgia and mellow warmth and great bouncing rhythm. Pity that the original choral version was not performed.

For a choir there was too – the Amadeus Chamber Choir, coached by Brian Cefai. They had all attention in the lovely Va’ pensiero from Verdi’s Nabucco, and rendered it finely with all the appropriate accents and holding on to that final,long-sustained note, allowing the piece to melt away in an entrancing hush.

Zammit Stevens, a scholar of the Joseph Calleja BOV Foundation, has an excellent gift: he is a great communicator and the public just loves him. This solid rapport underlines a warm personality, no airs and graces and built on a lot of serious preparation. Personally, I would have preferred him singing the opening two Tosti pieces in reverse order.

To my mind, L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra is technically very taxing, to which the intensity of feeling in L’ideale would have served as a warming up. This is not to say that Zammit Stevens did not acquit himself well in both but still, L’ideale had the edge on the other piece.

Later during the concert, the tenor reached a great height of achievement in Donizetti’s Una furtiva lagrima from L’elisir d’amore, and Kuda kuda from Tchaikovskly’s Yevgeny Onyegin.

He continued along the same lines in two beautiful French pieces: Ah! Je vais l’aimer from Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict and a gorgeous Ah! Léve-toi from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette.The intensity, general interpretation and diction are all there.

There is still some more polishing to do on the top notes and the sustaining thereof, and then strive at the emergence of a completely crystal clear voice when engaged in those upper reaches. Sometimes this is achieved, at others it is not. Having said that, there is no doubt that two light classical pieces and perennial favourites were beautifully rendered, namely Brodzsky’s Be My Love and D’Hardelot’s Because.

I found guest soprano Hannah Sandison a bit of a riddle. She does have a wide-ranging voice, one going between mezzo and soprano and one supposes she still has to decide where to navigate. Her singing was delightful in Dido’s Lament from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

It remained thus in Lascia’ ch’io pianga from Handel’s Rinaldo. She sang with a touching dignity and beautiful timbre that warmed the heart. In Pur ti miro, the final duet with the tenor from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea was full of slick exchanges and ideal rapport. It was when she sang Donde lieta uscì from Puccini’s La Bohème that one had doubts because as warmly interpreted as could be, the top notes sounded a little bit strident, which made one fear for the even higher tessitura in Dvorák’s Song to the Moon from Rusalka. The lower and middle reaches were fine but the climaxes sounded laboured.

The final duet of the concert, If I Loved You, from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, together with the choir, did not change matters. So it was with the encore O mio babbino caro from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Zammit Stevens had already sung his superb encore, de Curtis’s Non ti scordar di me.

The final encore featured tenor, soprano and choir in the Brindisi from Verdi’s La Traviata… and a standing ovation.