‘Rites of Spring’ part of this year’s music festival
KARL FIORINI has been organising the International Spring Festival since 2007.
This year’s festival, which features several premiers, starts on Tuesday and runs until Saturday. “Music is an international language with no holds barred and the festival is bringing together musicians who, despite their diversity, effortlessly unite through their love of music. All in all, from two 2 to 6 April promises to be an exciting week with at least 60 musicians performing in 13 concerts” Karl told me. “The festival will be paying homage to two of classical music’s personalities with anniversaries this year. Richard Wagner was born 200 years ago and Igor Stravinsky’s controversial Rites of Spring was premiered at the Theatre des Champs Elysees in 1913. What could be more appropriate than heralding the arrival of spring with Stravinsky’s radical work,” he said, adding, “this the first time that Rites of Spring will be performed in Malta with a two-piano recital performed by Charlene Farrugia and Nazzareno Ferruggio. It will be performed on Wednesday at the Manoel at 8.30pm.
Karl who lives and works in Paris is one of our young and upcoming composers with an eclectic style and a hint of self-mockery on occasion. His music has been played in major cities in the US, Japan, Latin America and Europe. He has won several international composition competitions and has been awarded bursaries by the Janatha Stubbs Trust Foundation (2004-2008), the Garfield Weston Foundation (2005) and the Peter Moores Foundation (2006).
He is in demand as a composer and arranger and his important commissions include a violin concerto (2007) for the leader of the Orquestra do Norte in Portugal; Harmonies Étendues (2008) for the European Union Chamber Orchestra; Kennst du das Land (2010) for the RE orchestra and Cadavre Exquis for the Ensemble Télémaque (2012).
“The audience for the Spring Festival performances has increased every year,” he told me, and he is hoping that this year will also see an upsurge in attendance. He started the festival with the idea of making classical music more accessible, especially to children and the young. To this end, three lunchtime concerts this year will be performed by young gifted musicians aged from 10 to 16.
This year’s opening evening concert on Tuesday features the ensemble Télémaque under the direction of Raoul Lay, and mezzo-soprano Clare Ghigo. The festival has also invited The Netherlands RE orchestra under the baton of Roberto Beltrán-Zavala. They will be performing Concerti Grossi from Vivaldi to our times with violin solo Marina Meerson and cello solo Anne Meike Burgel as well as a premier by pianist/composer Marlign Helder, from The Netherlands, on Thursday at 8.30. RE will also perform the closing concert with alto Carina Vinke at the same time on Saturday commemorating Wagner’s 200th birthday.
The Elixir piano quartet, who will be playing Premiers Quators Avec Piano, including Fiorini’s Piano Quartet No 1, on Friday at 8.30 are among the foreign artists who will be performing alongside their Maltese counterparts to offer 13 concerts during the five-day long event.
The lunchtime concerts are free, the 7pm recitals tickets are only €5 and those for the 8.30pm concerts are €10. There is also a 50 per cent discount for students and kartanzjan holders. So most can afford the performances.
Published in the Malta Sunday Independent 31/03/2013
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