Pianist Tricia Dawn Williams will be giving a recital of contemporary works, called Piano Mosaic, by seven Maltese composers, as part of the Valletta Piano Festival.
Williams specialises in the performance of 20th-century and contemporary music. The pianist, who is renowned for challenging performances, will open the programme with Rhapsoidia by Pawlu Grech. Rhythms of nature are evoked by Grech’s use of two Greek folk-tunes based on two pentatonic scales.
Keeping to the Mediterranean, Waves by Steven Psaila portrays the sunset on the beautiful beaches of Malta. Psaila’s Jogging will also be performed – a comical short composition that is technically very demanding.
In his piece, Asteroid Field, composer Reuben Pace presents a three-part piece describing an imaginary journey towards, through and away from an asteroid field.
From space we move back to earth, close to Paris, where composer Karl Fiorini was inspired by the rivers Rhone and Saone nearly touching each other, like a man and woman trying desperately to caress each other. The experience resulted in Les Ames Effleurées, which will also be performed.
Waħdu fis-Solitudni, composed by Paul Portelli, starts off by a serene note which is followed by a calm theme that is heard three times over the whole work and is meant to convey loneliness. Although this piece is written in contemporary classical spirit, it has been greatly influenced by the jazz idiom.
Alex Vella Gregory wrote a set of six Notturni. During this recital we will hear the first two, Lejl bla Tmiem and Il-Port il-Kbir bil-Lejl. The nocturnes explore other aspects of night-time, moving away from the picturesque romantic notions associated with it.
The programme concludes with Ruben Zahra’s Pounding. The principal material of this piece is a low-register percussive cluster which pounds its way through the three sections of the composition. The music develops in leaps and bounds, surprising the listener with dynamic contrasts and disparity between melodic and rhythmic fragments.
Piano Mosaic is being held on Tuesday at St James Cavalier, Valletta, at 8pm .
www.sjcav.org
February 2, 2014