The Victoria International Arts Festival, which came to an end last week, is the brainchild of the late and much lamented Joseph Vella and his highly dedicated, motivated collaborators. I cannot but express how very missed he is.
Fortunately, his hard-working team have bravely carried on with his legacy and would do no less than to provide the usual high quality performances we have been spoilt with. It was also very appropriate that this edition of the festival was dedicated to Mro Vella whose spirit lives on through his music and that of others who crowd ‘his’ beloved VIAF.
It was a delight to hear the voice of one of our leading young sopranos, Francesca Aquilina, accompanied at the piano by Julia Miller. The choice of programme was a clever and balanced one. Each piece provide a very good vehicle for the singer to exploit the many qualities, be they technical, musical and interpretative.
Aquilina is blessed with a clear, crystalline voice and another gift is that when she sings in any language, her diction is of the clearest, which helps to bring the message closer home. She could not go wrong with Fauré’s Chanson d’amour so fresh and vivid, the evocative Claire de lune and wistful Après un rêve. She could project the message behind De-bussy’s Beau soir, Mandolin along with Nuit d’etoiles, treading a magical fusion of the particular sound world of De-bussy’s music and the poetic texts respectively by Bourget, Verlaine and de Banville.
Julia Miller’s solo interlude remained Debussyian with her accomplished performance of his delightful Deux Arabesques, after which Aquilina “veered north” and sang the poignant Solveig’s Song (in English) from Grieg’s Peer Gynt. Then turning south she performed with every possible warmth and nuance the lovely gems that are Tosti’s Aprile and Serenata. She remained within the Italian repertoire in Nannetta’s Sul fil d’un soffio esteso from Verdi’s Falstaff, ideally suited to her voice.
The soprano’s choice of songs in English was a happyone. The US composer Douglas Moore’s Willow Song was hauntingly beautiful and hardly less so the traditional Irish song, The last rose of summer. Aquilina’s projection of Vaughan Williams’s Silent Noon revealed the composer’s romantic side. R. A. Smith’s My Love is like a Red, Red Rose came across with charm. A hint of regret could be felt in Waly Waly, a well-known traditional Scottish song while the only encore, Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro, was sung with all the rascally charm it should have.
The Minguet String Quartet, performing the following evening at the basilica of St George, which consists of Matthias Diener (cello) Ulrich Isfort, Ann-ette Reisinger (violins) and Aroa Sorin (viola) . The group are so busy that they were only in Gozo for less than 24 hours just to give a musicial performance, which began with Beethoven’s sixth and last quartet from his Op.18 set which is in B flat Major. Sheer beauty, balanced sound and impeccable cohesion was the order of the evening.
Beethoven’s quartet was a real exercise in delving deep into multifaceted character of the music best displayed in the concluding movement which from a dark melancholic of its opening section develops into an expression of sheer joy.
With what sounded like a good transcription of one of Mahler’s Rückert Lieder, Ich ben der Welt abhanden gekommen, it is difficult to decide which is the better, the original or the transcription. The voice and instruments in the original have all of the ability to convey the message very clearly. Brahms concluded this highly rewarding recital with a performance of the String Quartet in C minor Opus. 51 N.1.
There was a bold accentuation of the opening movement’s epic nature but then the music gave way to Brahms’s well-known more tender side in the openly high Romantic Romanze. The colourful allegretto molto moderato e commodo, virtually a scherzo and trio, led to a well-paced and knit finale. It was here that various structural and thematic elements dotting the work brought it home to great satisfaction.