Renovating St Cat's

The photo is of the cart ruts above Dwejra in Gozo. What ancient need is behind these stone cut tracks that can be found all over Malta and Gozo?  They are always the same distance apart so must be man-made.  My own feeling is that they are not caused by the erosion of wheels or sledges but were cut into the rock to serve like tram tracks for whatever needed to be transported from one place to another on a regular basis.

I want to do a short post on St Catherine of Italy.  The programme for March is now out and it is a celebration of the start of the renovation of the fresco in the cupola.  At this time of recession, Bank of Valletta have put up the funds to complete the work and the scaffolding is now in place as well as some curious hanging equipment to measure the climate in the chapel so that the painstaking work of restoring the beautiful grey on grey workmanship can begin.  There are several panels around the dome and each one depicts an aspect of the life of St Catherine.

The scaffolding has meant some rearrangement of the seating and the stage area so when the house is full, as it was today, the small round chapel is tightly packed.  Today I tried a different location and sat on the front row of the nave.  The full St James consort were playing two Haydn concerti - the Piano concerto with Ramona Zammit Formosa and the Trumpet concerto with Sigmund Mifsud - and I felt like I was right in the thick of it!  I am so privileged to be able to enjoy these great concerts in such a lovely, small location.

So far this March I've enjoyed flute trio sonatas (one of my favourite instruments) and L'Arte del Recitativo with the powerful soprano Andriano Fenech Yordnova.  Next Thursday we have the visiting Valparisio University Concert Band.  I think they will have to work out a way of doubling up the scaffolding to be used as tiered seating for the rest of the year's programme!