Recital
Sarah Spiteri, violin; Sandra Scicluna, mezzo-soprano; Alex Vella Gregory, piano
Sala Isouard

The latest recital in the Manoel Theatre’s Spotlight series focused mainly on young composer-pianist Alex Vella Gregory. Mr Vella Gregory is very active as an accomplished keyboard performer (piano, harpsichord and organ), accompanist and composer, which makes him one of Malta’s busiest young musicians. As composer he already has several works to his credit, and this recital highlighted three of them.

Mr Vella Gregory’s music is refreshingly bold with a very sound command of structure and form. Although it has a definitely contemporary stamp, often with adventurous forays in colour, texture and use of arrestingly-efficient harmonic devices, he does not eschew moments of lyricism.

He also freely acknowledges his debt to the local environment which colours even some of his more abstract output. His Violin Sonata (2006) was performed by him and the work’s dedicatee and close collaborator Sarah Spiteri. It was only to be expected that this was a very warm and excellently executed work with its three movements projecting contrasts galore. The first, Żifna (Dance) is full of strong dance rhythms based on Mediterranean folk idioms, during the course of which there are also the easily-discerned irregularities of Maltese speech-rhythms. Ħemda (Stillness) is an enervating evocation of a stifling Maltese hot summer night, while Tema u Varjazzjoniet, based on the popular Lanċa ġejja u oħra sejra (A ferry arrives and another one leaves) has cleverly structured variations, sometimes stretched eons away from the original base.

The next piece was one of two in the recital which were not by Mr Vella Gregory himself but which he performed with all the assurance needed. Scottish Kenneth Dempster’s Vista (2009) is a pleasant piece which according to the composer’s own note is a nostalgic exercise reminiscent of his days at Yale University.

Maybe I was insensitive to the purported ironic sideways glance at US politics and Dempster’s disapproval of much of that country’s foreign policy. There is a more recognisable element of Scottishness in Vista than anything else. On the other hand, there was no doubt about the very strong imagery in the music and lyrics, both Mr Vella Gregory’s, in the five-song cycle Verità. This was sung by mezzo-soprano Sandra Scicluna, whose voice has im- proved a lot lately and whose powers of interpretation remain as undimmed as ever. The theme is love and the bitterness and resentment at a failed relationship. Xama’ (Candle) made one feel the effect of a waning, flickering light which eventually dies out. In Il-Għorfa (The Hut), the spurned lover expresses herself most strongly.

Among the strongest imagery used were phrases which struck me greatly, these being għanqbut ta’ l-azzar (cobwebs of steel) which gleam in a corner of the dark hut and tal-ward il-petali d-dmugħ (of roses the petals are tears), which describe the singer’s predicament and disappointment. In Xita u Riħ (Rain and wind) there was a marked air of resignation with the singer just wanting to know that the erstwhile object of her love was safe. The music, however, remained rather strongly marked and coloured by the piano’s obsessive three-note phrase underling almost the whole movement.

Some very strong words were used in U ngħallmek tbus (And I’ll teach you how to kiss). The singer made good use of the text to project a wide gamut of feelings ranging from hope, which proves to be thwarted so it results in anger and sadness, finally giving way to resignation.

The penultimate work of the evening which Mr Vella Gregory performed was Fantasia (2009). This was Véronique Vella’s first piano solo composition. Ms Vella is also an accomplished pianist so she endows this pleasant multi-faceted Fantasia with a special feel which Mr Vella Gregory set to bring out in his performance.

As a final offering, Mr Vella Gregory performed his Knejjes II, which is the second six-part section of a cycle for piano inspired by churches of Valletta. Their various characteristics, stories and legends behind them are well evoked and illustrated in this attractive set, which is a worthy successor to Knejjes I which I heard some time ago.

The composer says that the third set of six (Knejjes III) is already finished. He is still working on the last six of the planned 24. One looks forward to the day when all are published and, why not, recorded.