Two recent duo recitals at the Manoel Theatre took place within the space of two days. The first was the piano duet formed by Erika Gialanzé and Gisèle Grima, a relatively recent formation going back to 2013. There is no doubt that this duo has been making forward strides in their music-making. Besides, they are also attracting attention of local composers from whom they have commissioned works.

One such work was the premiere of Two Pianos by Véronique Vella. This was a thoroughly enjoyable and attractive work. A very approachable work, its three movements were propelled by different degrees of energy and drive, which felt as if they were one exhilarating sweeping exercise.

The recital started with Schubert’s gorgeous Fantasy in F Minor, D. 940, a work to die for. If it began in what seemed to be a rather too restrained manner, it quickly warmed up. Its four continuous movements gradually built up in emotion but mainly in a soft manner to end back to square one with that lovely introductory theme bringing the dream to an end. By contrast, the duo plunged with the deepest ease into the completely different idiom of Charles Camilleri’s Paganiana.

Quite an evening it was for local works, because the next one was the very descriptive Irkejjen of Alex Vella Gregory. The four contrasting and colourful sections evoke very well various corners (irkejjen) of Valletta. This is something which Vella Gregory can do excellently as he has done with his cycle Knejjes (Churches). These ‘corners’ found worthy interpreters in the duo, who continued with Barber’s little-known Souvenirs Ballet Suite capturing really well what could have been the relative innocence of a world soon to be plunged into global conflict.

The two Spanish Dances from de Falla’s La Vida Breve were both very colourful, but with contrasting rhythmic vigour and texture.

They are also attracting attention of local composers, from whom they have commissioned works

Finally, it was back to one piano each when the duo performed Ravel’s own version of his Bolero.

It was no fault of the pianists, but I could not enthuse too much about this. What makes the original bearable is the way all the instruments in the orchestra repeat the music to the same relentless and unforgiving rhythm. Well, if not anything one could admire the resilience and determination of the duo to see it through as the master arranged it. The sole encore was Liszt’s unusual Berceuse, N.7 from the album Weihnachtsbaum.

Miriam Gauci and Michael Laus

The other concert featured what is perhaps Malta’s leading husband-and-wife team in seniority – both in opera and in recital –  soprano Miriam Gauci and pianist/conductor Michael Laus.

It is a great pity that turnout at the Manoel Theatre was not as it should have been, what with two other events in Valletta and more elsewhere, on the same evening.  When will the powers that be ever co-ordinate and liaise in such a small country? Why do so many have to be forced to make a choice?

Real art song/lieder aficionados who, for some reason, failed to go to this recital have missed something special. I, for one, regret having missed the Verdi Requiem which was directed by Michael Laus and in which Miriam Gauci sang the soprano solo beautifully by all accounts. The affinity between the Gauci-Laus tandem is almost tangible and certainly felt from within because they project it so well.

It was a pleasure to see Gauci back on the Manoel Theatre stage. It was an additional treat when she started with Wagner’s five Wesendoncklieder, which I never recall having heard here. There was an aura of deep serenity and peace in Der Engel and also the same kind of controlled restraint and softness in Stehe Still, but a momentum built up beautifully in Im Treibhaus. This should be no surprise as this is one of the two songs the themes of which ended up in Tristan und Isolde. Schmerzen was aptly deeply felt, existentialist anguish, while Träume was a lush outpouring of love which also ended up in the above opera.

So it continued with the duo’s swift adaptability to style, idiom and language. Best at home in Italian, the contrasts abounded between Liszt’s Tre Sonetti del Petrarca and a selection of songs by Rossini. Liszt could not help giving the piano a very prominent part in the former, in which voice and piano were equal in projecting the restless  Sonetto 104: Pace non trovo, the bitter-sweetness of Sonetto 47: Benedetto sia il giorno and the rather mystic touches of Sonetto 156: I’ vidi in terra angelici costumi.

As for the choice of six Rossini songs, these misleadingly and partially light-hearted art songs are far more difficult to master, whether in the piano or in the vocal part. Yet, they sailed on in various moods from the downright romanticism of yearning love or bucolic peace to gentle lolling on a gondola to the vigorous excitement of a tarantella.

A little darkening of the voice stood Gauci well when, at some points, she had to deal with certain forceful, deep statements and accents that were needed to drive home the message in some of de Falla’s Siete Canciones Populares Españolas. The enthusiasm of the audience at this conclusion resulted in three encores: Puccini’s O mio babbino caro and Un bel dí vedremo and, in keep-ing with the season, Adam’s O Holy Night.

Gauci has lost none of the clarity of voice, sweetness of tone and great power of interpretative expression, without which the above would have fallen flat. We shall and need to hear more of her. After years of self-imposed semi-retirement, this was not a comeback but a fine example in continuity.