An ode to summer

Tucked within the Silent City, a group of people gathered at St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate the arrival of summer. Taking place ahead of the Summer Solstice on 21 June, A Midsummer Dream returned on 17 June for one night only, offering an intimate musical experience for a limited number of patrons.

The concert was performed by the acclaimed Cordia String Quartet under the musical direction of Jacob Portelli, joined by renowned tenor Cliff Zammit Stevens and hosted by Clare Agius.

We were encouraged to arrive early, once the Cathedral had closed, and take in the site in silence. We were then guided past the Sacristy to where the concert would be held upstairs. The stage was decorated with flowers that looked so realistic that many thought they were fake, and were surprised when Agius pointed out that they were in fact real.

The concert programme journeyed through some of classical music’s most evocative works, from Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks to Brahms’s Hungarian Dances, the elegance of Haydn’s radiant Sunrise Quartet, and the romantic charm of Dvořák’s beloved waltzes.

The Cordia String Quartet performed the main programme of the concert and gave a solid performance, with Agius performing poems by both local and international poets, and Zammit Stevens performing multiple pieces, including Where’er You Walk from Semele by George Frideric Handel and The Salley Gardens by Benjamin Britten.

One of the standout performances of the night was Agius’s rendition of Maltese writer and poet Immanuel Mifsud’s poem Tkellimni, Nanna (Talk to me, Nanna), translated into English by Ruth Ward. The poem explores family memories, and in particular how precious spending time with grandparents during the summer can be. Many Maltese people can relate to spending time with their grandparents during the summer holidays while their parents worked, and hearing stories about their grandparents’ lives that, when we were children, sounded spectacular or otherworldly. An era long forgotten.

Agius’s interpretation of the poem captures the urgency, as an adult, of wanting to tell your grandparent to make sure you listen as a child. When you’re a child, you cannot fully appreciate how special spending time with your grandparents is, or how important these stories are, but you also cannot appreciate how fleeting these moments are. As Agius finished, you could hear the audience reacting, clearly moved by the performance.

Zammit Stevens reached his high point with Mattinata by Italian composer Ruggero Leoncavallo. Mattinata is a passionate morning serenade, with lyrics that contrast the dawn with a plea to a sleeping lover. The narrator sings that where his lover is absent there is no light, and where she is present, love is born. It was the perfect piece to end with, considering the theme. Mattinata is the ultimate ode to early summer. Its vibrant melodies capture the feeling of a summer morning, while the lyrics evoke the awakening of nature, blooming flowers, and the joy of a lover waiting for dawn to arrive.

The night ended with the Cordia String Quartet offering one final piece before we made our way through the narrow streets of the Silent City to find our parked car and reflect on the night’s musings.