Every singer’s worst nightmare is to experience loss of voice when it matters most… on the same day of a long-planned performance. This was the case with mezzo-soprano Alexandra Scicluna who had worked hard at preparing a recital in the Music Room at the Presidential Palace, San Anton.
Her accompanist was to be well-known concert pianist, accompanist and teacher Gisèle Grima who, in the usual order of things, would have also performed a solo piece half-way through the recital.
Very sadly, owing to the above dreaded indisposition, Scicluna had to cancel her performance. Grima was informed at noon on D-day, and like a true professional, with little time to rehearse, she devised a solo recital.
Over the past years she had already studied the pieces but had little time to rehearse them, yet she got down to work and saved the evening by stepping in with a programme that was very much to her credit.
A well-merited tribute to her professionalism
Gisèle Grima the pedagogue came out excellently in her brief introduction to each piece she played: concise, direct and with that right dose of sobriety mixed with humour.
The recital began with two relaxing pieces by the eccentrically witty Satie: Gymnopédie N. 1 and Gnossienne N. 1, which was followed by perhaps the most deeply involving work Grima performed. This was Liszt’s Lo Sposalizio from his Book II of Années de Pélerinage, a work inspired by Raffaello’s famous painting of the marriage of the Virgin.
This technically demanding work has meditative outer sections with a great, brilliant climax half-way through. This was cleverly wrought and approached and contrasted very sharply with the calm receding flow of the music as it faded into nothingness. After all that stormy turbulence it left one in an uplifted serene frame of mind.
On a lighter plane were two pieces by Granados. First the relatively unknown Danza de la rosa and the more famous, especially in its guitar version, Danza Española N. 5.
Another glimpse through the window of Grima’s great interest and love for French music was provided by two very contrasting pieces by Debussy. The pianist conveyed very clearly Debussy’s particularly unique sound works in pieces of widely divergent nature. These were the immensely popular meditative Clair de Lune (N.3 from the Suite Bergamasque) and concluding the concert with the boisterous Menestrels from the set of Book II Preludes.
The pianist deserved all the final plaudits, a well-merited tribute to her professionalism. She conceded an encore, going back to Granados with N. 6 of his Valses Poéticos.