Laura Cioffi and Clara Galea gave us a very entertaining hour of flute duets. They have been performing together for ten years and our treat was to hear the first UK performance of Qalb Wahda. Composed by Stuart Murray Mitchell, local to Edinburgh and who was in the audience, its name is translated as 'One Heart' which seems so appropriate for a couple who clearly enjoy making music together - even after ten years.
Laura and Clara are both reading for a BMus (Hons) degree at Edinburgh Napier University and sing in the St Andrew's and St George's West choir but they have come to Edinburgh from Malta.
The programme included Baroque by way of J S Bach's Ariosa which they had arranged and W F Bach's three movement Duo in E minor. Contemporary included the five sections of Qalb Wahda (Fair, Void, Hymn, Voice and Dizi) which used extended techniques and their application for the flute in a number of diverse sound words - and was very effective and a delighted to the ear.
What seemed even more contemporary was Maltese composer Reuben Pace's Postcards from Mars written in 2005. He is a space and astronomy enthusiast. Starting with a few blobs at Dawn at -150C through a Solar Storm to A Glimpse of Earth to Lifeless Dusk which amounted to a very atmospheric depiction of what a recently landed space craft would have heard.
The fun came from works by Zhurbin, Patachic, Schocker, and Garner. Jazz pieces were Mancini's Moon River and Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag and Ragtime Dance.
The Minister of St Andrew's and St George's West Church was sitting behind me and it really looked as if he had forgotten to clear up six bottles of booze from the dais. Goodness knows. But all became clear with the encore. Played to the flute was the blowing of each of the bottles to the tune Hey Big Spender.
What an enjoyable hour.
Concert: Friday 15th August 2014 at 12.30pm