The Gaulitana: A Festival of Music passed into its seventh representation this evening with the Marcel Zidani concert at the Aula Mgr. G. Farrugia, at St. George’s Basilica in Victoria, at 8.00 p.m.
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Mro. Zidani was born in London in 1973 and grew up in Banbury. He studied music at the Birmingham Conservatoire where he graduated with honours in 1995.
After being selected for advanced performance studies at the Conservatoire, Marcel began his concert career. He has performed extensively, as a soloist, in the UK and in Europe, performing much of the virtuoso concerto repertoire. including Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2, Listzt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and Litolf’s Scherzo.
Marcel is also a composer and his music has influences from a wide range of composers and in it one traces references to Chopin. Liszt, Mozart, Einaudi and Keith Jarret.
The first CD of his works, Piano in the Small Hours, is the result of improvised sessions, often late at night and after a few glasses of wine! It has a mixture of musical qualities, from easy listening with long flowing melodies, to a more classical / romantic piano style appealing to all musical tastes.
His second CD, The New Renaissance, demonstrates a mature progression from the first album. The title dictates a rebirth of the romantic style and is intended to be indicative of a long awaited return to this and other styles. This music is dedicated to those who like a good melody but need something more than much of the "easy listening" music that is so widely available today.
Marcel Zidani has been a long time supporter of Evesham-based The Tracy Sollis Leukemia Trust and donates to this charity a third of each Piano in the Small Hours CD sold.
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For this concert Mro. Zidani regaled the audience with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in D Minor Op. 31 – The Tempest Allegro – Adagio – Allegretto and Franz Liszt’s Etude in Db Major – Un Sospiro. After the interval Mro Zidani treated the captive audience with the first two movements of his own composition Piano Sonata in Two Keys – A New Renaissance:
i) The Renaissance; and
ii) The Secret Waltz;
and then another of his own compositions: Forgotten Heroes.
Mro. Zidani concluded this concert with the Grunfeld arrangement of Soirees de Vienne by Johan Strauss.
The Gaulitana Festival of Music continues on Sunday, 13th April 2008 at the Gharb Basilica in Gharb, Gozo, where the performers will be Ramona Zammit Formosa and Silvio Zammit who have been active as a duo for the past twelve years, with a repertiore that ranges from the baroque to the contemporary.
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