The photo is of the crib that has been set up in the bombed out Opera House in Valletta. It has been turned into an old Maltese village complete with live animals, a well, recycled Roman remains and old farm implements. I watched them building the site when I was on my way to the concert at St Catherine's on Thursday and by Sunday when I went up to Valletta again for the Sunday morning concert, they had finished it.
The programme at St Catherine of Italy in December is about Christmas. The whole of Malta in December is about Christmas and this next series of posts will illustrate a little!
On Thursday, the concert featured three artists who are regulars on the programme at St Catherine's. Silvio Zammit plays flute, his wife Ramona Zammit Formosa plays piano (and harpsichord in some of the other concerts) and Sarah Spiteri on violin is the guiding light behind this excellent series of concerts that has become a regular feature of my week. What I really appreciate as someone who is relatively untutored in classical music is the way in which Sarah explains the music that is the focus of a particular programme. On Thursday, the trio played three pieces that showed a progression from Baroque to classical in terms of the way in which the flute and violin talk to each other. The first piece by Nicolo Porpora was Sinfonia Da Camera a tre and the dialogue was very polite with the instruments taking turns. The second piece by J S Bach was a trio sonata in C minor and here piano and flute kept talking over each other very excitedly. The final piece was by J C F Bach, the son, Sonate in C major, and the instruments talk in parallel but a few notes apart. I loved all of the pieces and reveled in my front row seat from where I could even hear the sound of the flute's valves moving up and down!
We had the start of some bad weather on Thursday, and at one point Sarah poised in between two movements to comment ruefully on the 4th instrument that had joined the conversation - the rain on the roof of St Catherine's. The slight drip onto the person sitting behind me highlighted the reason for the concerts which is to raise awareness and funds for the restoration of the chapel!
Sunday's programme was very different but delightful also. The Malta Children's Choir sang the Christmas story with traditional carols, original songs and readings from the Christmas story by some of the children.
Over the next week, St Catherine's has a series of seasonal music but it is in the evenings from 19.30 so I'll have to miss those ones as my last bus back to Marsaxlokk is too early. But I'll make it to the Thursday lunchtime concert this week which features a Medieval to Baroque Christmas.
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