Quoting the Bard when presenting the flute and piano recital by Silvio Zammit and his wife Ramona Zammit Formosa, concert co-ordinator Sarah Spiteri said that “if music be the food of love, play on”.
With this, she also had in mind the fact that this was the eve of St Valentine’s Day, and it was very appropriate too that the recital featured a married couple whose partnership and excellent rapport extends to their music- making.
They come up with interesting and balanced programmes which are always a delight, ranging from baroque to contemporary. For this recital they ranged from Weber to Gaubert and Chaminade.
In Weber’s Sonata N.6 in C, the piano writing is almost as brilliant as that for the flute, with the latter having the slighter edge.
The themes in the opening allegro con fuoco came across in a pleasant interaction between the performers, followed by a brief relaxing very lyrical largo with a melodic line frequently underlined by a somewhat sombre piano in the lower reaches and which led straight into a polonaise with its highly ornamented and pretty virtuoso and very well-handled flute part.
The recital proceeded with the popular Schön Rosmarin, in an arrangement of Kreisler’s well-known version for violin and piano. Kreisler made this work very much his own, basing it on an original landler/waltz by Lanner.
This charming arrangement came as a break before more virtuoso playing came along with Saint-Saëns’s Adagio and Variations from his opera Ascanio. The very brief adagio led to the rather brief variations which were enough to liken them to avian singing pyrotechnics so effortlessly well did the flautist make them sound.
Zammit Formosa performed a solo, choosing Liszt’s Consolation N.4, which one hardly ever hears, being as it is overshadowed by the immense popularity of its predecessor. This one had warmth, underscored by several arresting chords, meditative with a touch of the nocturne about it, and a noble chorale-like melody mingled with it.
The mood was, in a way, quite similar to that in one of the most appealing works in this recital. This was the very lyrical Madrigal by Philippe Gaubert. It is a reverie one wished could go on and on, more so because of the way this was performed in such a stylish and elegant manner. Likewise, the flute crystalline tone brought out the best in a duo arrangement of Rakhmaninov’s famous Vocalise.
It was a lady’s music which had the last word in this recital. This was an arrangement for flute and piano of the Concertino for flute and orchestra in D, Op. 107 by Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944).
This is in one continuous movement and rightly retains a popularity which is quite unlike the fate of the composer’s many other works. It is a beautiful work which was performed with the necessary sensitivity and verve, mindful of the work’s continuing shift in mood and with the two instruments in admirable harmony and rapport.