Maria Ghirlando was given an intimate insight into the personalities of tenor Joseph Calleja and conductor Brian Schembri who will both be in the limelight in this evening's much anticipated concert in St George's Square, Valletta. She was delighted with the frank cordiality on their part in this exclusive exchange of "confessions" which she is sharing with our readers.
What enthused you to take up a musical career?
Joseph: To cut a long story short I always felt that singing was very important for me. I have Minolta film of me singing at the age of three and amateur ventures in school and church choirs confirmed my passion for singing.
Brian: My father, Carmel Schembri, was a brilliant performer and music teacher. He was also first clarinet in Admiral Mountbatten's orchestra. My paternal great-grandparents were folk guitar players of note and from my maternal side, many were amateur musicians playing oboe, guitar, mandolin, piano. Fr Albert Borg is also my mother's uncle. So you see, the DNA was somehow ready for this leap. I learnt playing the notes on the piano on my own, watching my father giving lessons to my sisters. Then, one naughty summer afternoon, after my brother Giuseppe managed to nearly explode our house using some bizarre chemical invention of his, our mother decided that the only way to calm my brother's scientific ardour was to put me at the piano for half an hour a day... My father was reluctant to push me into music, he knew by bitter experience what sort of environment musicians navigate in. However, the bug caught on and he started slowly involving himself selflessly (and quite pitilessly...), taking me from one achievement to the other till I got my LRSM at about 14, which was quite an achievement those days.
What do you consider the turning point in your career so that you never looked back?
Joseph: The Belvedere competition in Vienna in 1997. When I was one of the seven prize winners out of 3,800 competitors worldwide I knew I had something special to offer.
Brian: Till my LRSM feat, I took music studies as an added cross to carry, especially since I was appearing regularly on TV and concert halls performing highly demanding works, meaning endless hours of practice while my friends were playing football and swimming, or just having fun. However, this result somehow convinced me that music was after all, now and forever, my life.
What is the most rewarding aspect in your career?
Joseph: The ability to stir emotions in an audience with the sole power of the voice.
Brian: I do not live music as a career. I am really non career-oriented. I even abhor the word. I prefer to speak of life in music. The reward is when I achieve what I decide as being good artistic results and feel communion with public and orchestra/soloists etc. This is an extremely rare moment in my world, in my consciousness, in my existence. I am so rarely satisfied with my results, that when I finally allow myself the luxury of admitting a result as "acceptable", I feel like I am reborn. It is like a tragic experience with its cathartic resolution, reminiscent of a Beethoven finale... The personal aspect which comforts me profoundly is the deep faith and absolutely non-rational conviction that Music (capital M) speaks to me in a language I know from the beginning of time and that I understand and cherish its desires. That is one thing in my life I will never trade with anything, even though it is no real achievement of mine, in the sense that it is definitely a gift that God happened to place in the mortal container that I am.
What is the hardest aspect in your career?
Joseph: Constant travelling, flight delays, being away from my kids and the dreaded lost luggage of which I had more than my fair share recently....
Brian: It must be "career" itself. I hate career. I am anti-career. I am oblivious to it. I have to say that I often realise that the feeling is seemingly, proportionally mutual...
What is it that makes you click with one another?
Joseph: Nepotism... we are distant relatives; joking apart, Brian has a passion for music and schooling which is unrivalled in Malta and beyond. An accomplished concert pianist who also manages to be excellent with the baton, forging a good rapport with the orchestra and soloists. Add to this his love of the "old school of singing" which makes him ideal for operatic recitals, be it on the piano or full orchestra.
Brian: Having been culturally bred (at least partially) also in the aura of our historical tenors Oreste Chircop and Paul Asciak, I remember the emotion when I acquired the vinyls that came out in the early 1980s with their recordings and the excitement when I procured a cassette tape from the Rediffusion archives of some of their recordings... having shared my student hostel room in Russia for so many years with Bolshoi Theatre principal tenor Oleg Kulko... and being what I call a tenore d'illusione, a term I have invented, meaning that in my dreams, I imagine myself to be a tenor (!!!!)... all this must have influenced me. My first encounter with Joseph was when he was my guest soloist in what was for me a very important orchestral concert at the Manoel Theatre in 2004. Joseph was, naturally, excellent and people still remember that concert with a feeling of elation. It was indeed an event to remember, both musically and socially. Something special had happened and as one reviewer wrote, "... Joseph Calleja rocked the whole theatre from its very foundations and Brian Schembri swept it clean". Since then, I have found in Joseph not only a voice, the qualities of which have been the main talk of the operatic world these last years, but also a man with a rare sense of humour and such a positive outlook.
What were the most rewarding occasions when you performed together? And what about the most recent one?
Joseph: The EU concert at the Manoel in 2004 was very special. Unlike other individuals who at first did not want me to perform in the EU celebrations, he was instantly supportive and enthusiastic about our collaboration. A gesture which I will never forget. He also directed me at the Henley on Thames Festival which was our first collaboration abroad. Our most recent was a private recital in Kunzelsau and a concert at the Frankfurt Alteoper with Tatiana Lisnic.
Brian: It sounds cliché, but each concert has been a pleasurable occasion. After the memorable Manoel concert I mentioned, thanks to Joseph, we have performed a number of concerts in Malta, London, Germany, each one a different experience with different important orchestras, at the piano... In my not so short music life, mostly spent abroad, I have often missed the opportunity to work intimately with musicians/singers in Maltese. It may sound romantically patriotic, I admit, but I am a romantic and a patriot. I was born three years before independence (and my birthday is September 21!), I was brought up in Malta in the 1970s and I modestly maintain that these very crucial and formative years for the culture scene in Malta will forever make part of my inner nature. Rehearsing an orchestra in Maltese still excites me. Going through the arias at the piano with Joseph during rehearsal and swearing (yes, it does happen) in Maltese at some wrong note or whatever, is a moment which I particularly enjoy. Taking the bow in front of a standing ovation in the Frankfurt Alteoper last June and passing compliments on stage to each other in Maltese, is so important for me.
You are both "products" essentially of Malta. How does this affect you when you are performing abroad/in your home country?
Joseph: We were born in Malta but in my opinion we are "products" of our own experience, studies and talent. I feel great joy albeit with a big dose of responsibility when preparing for a Malta event and Brian can vouch for the hours of internet chats, skype calls and regular phone conversations we have before a concert to ensure the best artistic product and preparation.
Brian: I have lived in Malta for less than one-third of my life and that was mostly my childhood and early youth. Although I did my higher music studies in Russia (eight years in Kiev and Moscow Conservatoires) and most of my activities have happened abroad (I have been living in France for nearly 20 years, now), I still feel this sense of being ever present in Malta. Maybe, the youthful years I spent in Malta appearing regularly on TV, concert halls, news, etc have forged a contact, which as I have explained above, is very strong in my inner nature. After all, I was involved in a number of "firsts" in our small nation's music history and these experiences mark a man. I am not usually prone to self-complacency, but I am still extremely touched by the strong following I have among the Maltese public. A couple of years ago I performed a piano recital at the Manoel, after 15 or so years of not performing there as a piano soloist (I used to be a regular performer then...). Just after the initial applause died out and before I started playing, I heard some noise from people still running to their seats, so I looked into the hall to check whether all was OK. A gentleman, probably thinking I was checking whether there was anybody at all, called out "We're all here, Brian!".... that was one of the most moving experiences in all my life... yes, so many years later they were "all there" ... that is one reward that affects one for ever.
Did you have Malta or Pavarotti in mind when you chose this particular programme?
Joseph: We wanted to do a Puccini tribute at first, celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth. Once the great Luciano Pavarotti died last year we both agreed together with NnG Promotions to dedicate the concert to Pavarotti's memory, albeit focusing on works by Puccini. In fact it is noteworthy that Pavarotti's professional debut was as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème, of which we have two excerpts, and that every aria and duet in the concert is taken from the repertoire Pavarotti sung throughout the years.
Brian: When Joseph generously asked me to join him on this project, Pavarotti was still alive. We already had a Puccini programme drafted, when on Pavarotti's death, Joseph very naturally decided he wished to dedicate this concert to the memory of this ever smiling, joy-giving opera and music giant personality that was Pavarotti. Did we have Malta in mind? Although opera and Pavarotti have become inseparable life concepts internationally, with Malta's traditional love for opera and tenors in particular... one can say that this concert is also absolutely tailor-made for Malta, all the more now that the production has roped in the services of the Malta Philharmonic National Orchestra, which I will be so happy to meet again, nearly two years after our last collaboration.
What enthused you to take up a musical career?
Joseph: To cut a long story short I always felt that singing was very important for me. I have Minolta film of me singing at the age of three and amateur ventures in school and church choirs confirmed my passion for singing.
Brian: My father, Carmel Schembri, was a brilliant performer and music teacher. He was also first clarinet in Admiral Mountbatten's orchestra. My paternal great-grandparents were folk guitar players of note and from my maternal side, many were amateur musicians playing oboe, guitar, mandolin, piano. Fr Albert Borg is also my mother's uncle. So you see, the DNA was somehow ready for this leap. I learnt playing the notes on the piano on my own, watching my father giving lessons to my sisters. Then, one naughty summer afternoon, after my brother Giuseppe managed to nearly explode our house using some bizarre chemical invention of his, our mother decided that the only way to calm my brother's scientific ardour was to put me at the piano for half an hour a day... My father was reluctant to push me into music, he knew by bitter experience what sort of environment musicians navigate in. However, the bug caught on and he started slowly involving himself selflessly (and quite pitilessly...), taking me from one achievement to the other till I got my LRSM at about 14, which was quite an achievement those days.
What do you consider the turning point in your career so that you never looked back?
Joseph: The Belvedere competition in Vienna in 1997. When I was one of the seven prize winners out of 3,800 competitors worldwide I knew I had something special to offer.
Brian: Till my LRSM feat, I took music studies as an added cross to carry, especially since I was appearing regularly on TV and concert halls performing highly demanding works, meaning endless hours of practice while my friends were playing football and swimming, or just having fun. However, this result somehow convinced me that music was after all, now and forever, my life.
What is the most rewarding aspect in your career?
Joseph: The ability to stir emotions in an audience with the sole power of the voice.
Brian: I do not live music as a career. I am really non career-oriented. I even abhor the word. I prefer to speak of life in music. The reward is when I achieve what I decide as being good artistic results and feel communion with public and orchestra/soloists etc. This is an extremely rare moment in my world, in my consciousness, in my existence. I am so rarely satisfied with my results, that when I finally allow myself the luxury of admitting a result as "acceptable", I feel like I am reborn. It is like a tragic experience with its cathartic resolution, reminiscent of a Beethoven finale... The personal aspect which comforts me profoundly is the deep faith and absolutely non-rational conviction that Music (capital M) speaks to me in a language I know from the beginning of time and that I understand and cherish its desires. That is one thing in my life I will never trade with anything, even though it is no real achievement of mine, in the sense that it is definitely a gift that God happened to place in the mortal container that I am.
What is the hardest aspect in your career?
Joseph: Constant travelling, flight delays, being away from my kids and the dreaded lost luggage of which I had more than my fair share recently....
Brian: It must be "career" itself. I hate career. I am anti-career. I am oblivious to it. I have to say that I often realise that the feeling is seemingly, proportionally mutual...
What is it that makes you click with one another?
Joseph: Nepotism... we are distant relatives; joking apart, Brian has a passion for music and schooling which is unrivalled in Malta and beyond. An accomplished concert pianist who also manages to be excellent with the baton, forging a good rapport with the orchestra and soloists. Add to this his love of the "old school of singing" which makes him ideal for operatic recitals, be it on the piano or full orchestra.
Brian: Having been culturally bred (at least partially) also in the aura of our historical tenors Oreste Chircop and Paul Asciak, I remember the emotion when I acquired the vinyls that came out in the early 1980s with their recordings and the excitement when I procured a cassette tape from the Rediffusion archives of some of their recordings... having shared my student hostel room in Russia for so many years with Bolshoi Theatre principal tenor Oleg Kulko... and being what I call a tenore d'illusione, a term I have invented, meaning that in my dreams, I imagine myself to be a tenor (!!!!)... all this must have influenced me. My first encounter with Joseph was when he was my guest soloist in what was for me a very important orchestral concert at the Manoel Theatre in 2004. Joseph was, naturally, excellent and people still remember that concert with a feeling of elation. It was indeed an event to remember, both musically and socially. Something special had happened and as one reviewer wrote, "... Joseph Calleja rocked the whole theatre from its very foundations and Brian Schembri swept it clean". Since then, I have found in Joseph not only a voice, the qualities of which have been the main talk of the operatic world these last years, but also a man with a rare sense of humour and such a positive outlook.
What were the most rewarding occasions when you performed together? And what about the most recent one?
Joseph: The EU concert at the Manoel in 2004 was very special. Unlike other individuals who at first did not want me to perform in the EU celebrations, he was instantly supportive and enthusiastic about our collaboration. A gesture which I will never forget. He also directed me at the Henley on Thames Festival which was our first collaboration abroad. Our most recent was a private recital in Kunzelsau and a concert at the Frankfurt Alteoper with Tatiana Lisnic.
Brian: It sounds cliché, but each concert has been a pleasurable occasion. After the memorable Manoel concert I mentioned, thanks to Joseph, we have performed a number of concerts in Malta, London, Germany, each one a different experience with different important orchestras, at the piano... In my not so short music life, mostly spent abroad, I have often missed the opportunity to work intimately with musicians/singers in Maltese. It may sound romantically patriotic, I admit, but I am a romantic and a patriot. I was born three years before independence (and my birthday is September 21!), I was brought up in Malta in the 1970s and I modestly maintain that these very crucial and formative years for the culture scene in Malta will forever make part of my inner nature. Rehearsing an orchestra in Maltese still excites me. Going through the arias at the piano with Joseph during rehearsal and swearing (yes, it does happen) in Maltese at some wrong note or whatever, is a moment which I particularly enjoy. Taking the bow in front of a standing ovation in the Frankfurt Alteoper last June and passing compliments on stage to each other in Maltese, is so important for me.
You are both "products" essentially of Malta. How does this affect you when you are performing abroad/in your home country?
Joseph: We were born in Malta but in my opinion we are "products" of our own experience, studies and talent. I feel great joy albeit with a big dose of responsibility when preparing for a Malta event and Brian can vouch for the hours of internet chats, skype calls and regular phone conversations we have before a concert to ensure the best artistic product and preparation.
Brian: I have lived in Malta for less than one-third of my life and that was mostly my childhood and early youth. Although I did my higher music studies in Russia (eight years in Kiev and Moscow Conservatoires) and most of my activities have happened abroad (I have been living in France for nearly 20 years, now), I still feel this sense of being ever present in Malta. Maybe, the youthful years I spent in Malta appearing regularly on TV, concert halls, news, etc have forged a contact, which as I have explained above, is very strong in my inner nature. After all, I was involved in a number of "firsts" in our small nation's music history and these experiences mark a man. I am not usually prone to self-complacency, but I am still extremely touched by the strong following I have among the Maltese public. A couple of years ago I performed a piano recital at the Manoel, after 15 or so years of not performing there as a piano soloist (I used to be a regular performer then...). Just after the initial applause died out and before I started playing, I heard some noise from people still running to their seats, so I looked into the hall to check whether all was OK. A gentleman, probably thinking I was checking whether there was anybody at all, called out "We're all here, Brian!".... that was one of the most moving experiences in all my life... yes, so many years later they were "all there" ... that is one reward that affects one for ever.
Did you have Malta or Pavarotti in mind when you chose this particular programme?
Joseph: We wanted to do a Puccini tribute at first, celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth. Once the great Luciano Pavarotti died last year we both agreed together with NnG Promotions to dedicate the concert to Pavarotti's memory, albeit focusing on works by Puccini. In fact it is noteworthy that Pavarotti's professional debut was as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème, of which we have two excerpts, and that every aria and duet in the concert is taken from the repertoire Pavarotti sung throughout the years.
Brian: When Joseph generously asked me to join him on this project, Pavarotti was still alive. We already had a Puccini programme drafted, when on Pavarotti's death, Joseph very naturally decided he wished to dedicate this concert to the memory of this ever smiling, joy-giving opera and music giant personality that was Pavarotti. Did we have Malta in mind? Although opera and Pavarotti have become inseparable life concepts internationally, with Malta's traditional love for opera and tenors in particular... one can say that this concert is also absolutely tailor-made for Malta, all the more now that the production has roped in the services of the Malta Philharmonic National Orchestra, which I will be so happy to meet again, nearly two years after our last collaboration.