The Manoel Theatre will tomorrow (Thursday evening) host a concert in collaboration with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra presenting the acclaimed violinist Carmine Lauri and soprano Miriam Cauchi.
From a soprano in the light repertoire, Cauchi passed on to the lyrical scene. As a result, last year she was committed to a busy schedule travelling to Italy, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Despite her dedication to to music, however Cauchi maintains a balance with her family life, stating: "I was born with a vocation to sing, but I have also chosen a vocation of a wife and mother. I want to be present and not to miss out on things."
Cauchi has a varied repertoire from Italian bel canto opera, to lieder, oratorio and contemporary works. She also sings works of various Maltese composers. She confessed: "opera has been my first love, but exposure to other genres of music has helped me develop as an artist due to their challenging nature".
She has a strong connection with Slavic music, however as Maltese, she feels proud to promote our musical heritage.
Cauchi will be singing Vier Letzte Lieder by Richard Strauss. She ventured on this ambitious task, saying: "I love this cycle and until Mro Vella approached me to perform them, I always thought of them as something I would do later on in my career. I was excited at the prospect and at the same time apprehensive. I regard these songs as a milestone in the journey of a singer. I feel they are a spiritual journey of the soul. The music is entwined to the utterly beautiful prose of the three poems by Hesse and one by Von Eichendorff."
Lauri's career started when he left Malta on an ABRSM scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Lauri admitted, "once I left Malta, the world of music opened up for me and there was no way I could go back.
"Obviously to make such a successful career, I had to work and study hard and also show a lot of talent which I believe I was already born with. Now the hardest thing I face is to keep it at that level and possibly even higher and that requires constant dedication and practice."
Later the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) offered Lauri a job as a tutti first violin and a few years later this led to the co-leader position within the same orchestra, which as he puts it, "entitled me to lead the orchestra for 30 per cent of the work and also sit with our principal and guest leaders".
He has also been asked to lead such orchestras as the London, the Rotterdam the Hong Kong Philharmonic as well as the Orquesta Municipal de Caracas. As leader of the LSO he led the orchestra on a number of worldwide tours, as well as the concerts at the Barbican centre, in London, under the direction of such world renowned conductors as Valery Gergiev, Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, and Andre Previn.
At the Manoel, on this occasion, Lauri will be performing Mro J Vella's violin concerto. Lauri describes this work as "a different world from say the ever popular concertos written by Mendelssohn or Tchaikovsky that the Maltese audience is more accustomed to. Both tonally and structurally it presents a challenge both for the listener and the soloist and orchestra and my job is to try and interpret Mro Vella's composition in such a way that I engage the audience from the very first note till the very last."
Asked which are their most treasured musical experiences, Cauchi claims she was "deeply touched and honoured" when she was appointed to the National Order of Merit last December.
Lauri is particularly proud of his special appearance in Malta in the presence of H.M. Queen Elizabeth in 1995 accompanied by our then National orchestra as well as last January's performance of the Dvorak Violin Concerto under the baton of Michael Laus - "I can say that I treasured every single note."
Cauchi and Lauri share the same feelings with regard to the pressure they feel in maintaining the level they have achieved so far, yet Cauchi enjoys the performance the minute she hears the first bars of the music.
Lauri expresses his concern about critics' opinions, had they only to remember "that we are also human and not a replica of a heavily edited ‘perfect' recording on a CD that nowadays, sadly we are accustomed to".
His few words of advice to budding musicians: "Try and be as faithful to the score as possible and always treat a particular work even if you have performed it for hundreds of times as if it was the very first performance."
"In a concert hall that might seat 2500 people, you might find one that has come to your repeat performance the following day. You owe that person something special."
Cauchi also encourages students with fewer yet meaningful words; "serious study, commitment, determination and a good dose of luck"
The concert will start at 8 p.m