After the resounding success of the first concert by the European Union Baroque Orchestra on the 20th, word went round about how wonderful it was and the demand for the second one grew commensurately. I arrived half an hour before the performance with my guests and while I have never had problems with the ushers during the entire Malta Arts Festival there was a slight though potentially embarrassing skirmish with the military as, failing to recognise me as I entered the hallowed portals of Auberge de Castille, I must have been mistaken for Osama bin Laden by the new usherettes whom had been called in as reinforcements.
As I brushed off soldier after soldier, keeping them at a distance with the aid of my palju while climbing that sublime Andrea Belli staircase I was mercifully recognised by the normal ushers and much to the befuddlement of the battalion that had gathered around me, now cheated of their prey, I was guided to the VIP seats!
To get down to business I frankly am of the opinion that the organising committee has to rethink the timing of this festival. In fact I feel that the entire Malta cultural calendar needs to be rethought. I was watching Mezzo Channel and during Divertimezzo there was an excerpt with that charismatic Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Berlin Philharmonic performing at open air concert at the Digital Concert Hall at Waldbuhne in July 2008.
It was a lovely balmy evening, no wind, no rain; absolutely perfect weather with a colossal audience wearing cardigans and scarves; a far cry from the relentless and enervating sauna that we are subjected to here. Midsummer music -making en plein air in Malta is simply unpleasant.
We should be utilising our innumerable open air venues in the springtime while music in the summer should be held in a comfortably air-conditioned custom- built concert hall, preferably a creation of Renzo Piano o the lines of his Sala della Musica in Parma; but as is my wont, I digress, although with the most well meant of good intentions that are the product of many years of reviewing music in all conditions and understanding and appreciating Malta's needs and wants a little better than most.
The EUBO programme for Wednesday the 21st was even more beautiful than the one performed the day before. I will not be able to get the electrifying performance of Heinrich Ignaz von Biber's Battalia out of my head for a long time.
It was, to me, the highlight of the evening. Director Lars Ulrik Mortensen's highly animated introduction to the piece enabled the audience to identify the various stages of a 17th century battle ending in an ethereally sad Lamento for those soldiers on both sides who would never see the light of day again.
Such a tragic waste.
Contrary to popular perception there was a great deal of the descriptive or as it is called programmatic music that anticipated Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy but by several centuries. It is interesting to note how common it was to be onomatopoeic in baroque music with storms and rain, revelry and dance and all sorts of musical pictures that for some reason became unfashionable in the romantic period and was revived by the Impressionists. If one listens to contemporary composer Eric Whitacre's Cloudburst for instance the relationship with von Biber's Battalia or even Charpentier's Suite to Moliere's Malade Imaginaire is much stronger than with Schumann's Spring Symphony or even Beethoven's Pastoral.
Von Biber lived through one of the most dramatic periods of Austrian history which was when in 1683 Vienna was besieged by the Turks and relieved by the Polish King Jan Sobieski with his hussar cavalry wearing helmets with the feathers placed in such a way as when charging would cause a noise like the wails of a thousand banshees.
Pitched battles even in the late 17th century were still things that happened which is why the Biber piece is so authentic.
The Overture and Ballet Music from Handel's Alcina and his Concerto D Minor Grosso were full of that iconic Handelian elegance and melodrama that identifies his output so effectively.
The EUBO performed with great precision but one that was also vibrantly alive. Lars Ulrik Mortensen infuses an energy that is transmitted, unmistakably and indelibly, to the ensemble and importantly to us the audience. Mortensen is a perfect example of all that an orchestral conductor should be. We were literally spellbound and could, with him, feel every nuance, every declamation as the music unfolded. I especially enjoyed the Albinoni Concerto for Two Oboes on period instruments which made it all sound so much more authentic. As an encore the ensemble performed the finale from the Vivaldi String Concerto which by common consent was so beautiful when played the day before that we were all mentally gasping for it.
There is something unmistakable in Vivaldi that somehow suits our Mediterranean temperament and revives it just like a delicious Mistral. Those mesmerising passages resembling a team of thoroughbred Arabian horses in frolicsome mode cannot but rivet one to the spot.
We could have had more and more without ever tiring of it which brings me to express the wish that if and when the Malta Baroque Festival, which I have been pushing to happen for all I am worth, becomes a reality in January 2011 and Valletta becomes the venue for these unquestionable musical delights that suit it so well, we will have the type of music that Maltese audiences have been starved of for so long. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos in the Gizwiti, Handel's Organ Concertos at St John's and Vivaldi's Quattro Stagioni at the Manoel Theatre would make very sound and successful cornerstones to a baroque extravaganza that would entice Maltese audiences to a greater cognisance and hence a greater appreciation of other baroque works that are not so well known.