Lukewarm pop fever

Icame out at the end of the concert "Pop Fever" performed by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted for the first time by its principal trombone, Roderick Bugeja, with mixed feelings.

A staunch "supporter" of classical music, I am open to music of all genres, and was very much looking forward to Pop Fever. I was sorely disappointed with the outcome and have pinned it down to two elements in particular. The first was a largely lacklustre choice of programme, which bar a few exceptions were not the most "popular" samples of pop music, and secondly the amplification of the whole concert was far too loud and made listening painful. A drab stage, with the exception of the female members of the orchestra dressed in white, did not help much, neither did the compere's script which repeated ad nauseam what a fantastic evening this was.

Otherwise I cannot find fault with the orchestra's performance and must add that in contrast to a small minority of the audience who did not return to their seats in the second half of the programme, the greater part of the audience seemed to be having a field day.

The opening number The Olympic Spirit by John Williams, a very apt choice in view of Beijing, augured well, especially as the brass section delivered confidently. I must say that at this point the use of rotating light effects was very annoying and thankfully stopped soon after.

Madonna, A Concert Tour followed; as in most of the medleys, one tune did not merge naturally into the next with cohesion definitely not on the agenda. We had to wait to the end of the first half of the concert for something conventionally familiar at last in the form of Bryan Adams's Everything I do, I do it for You, immediately followed by Boney M's greatest hits featuring Daddy Cool, Ma Baker, and Rivers of Babylon, which was hallmarked by good dynamics and excellent work on strings and flute.

Much as I admired the man, I was not overimpressed with the opening of the second half of the concert, The Tribute to Major Anthony Chircop, which turned out to be too short and not much of a homage, with volume again top of the agenda.

The programme was enhanced by the participation of vocalist Gloriana Arpa who sang to the tune of From This Moment, marred somewhat by bad miking, as well as a more successful Proud Mary.

Two original contributions by Sixth Sinfoni who aim at refreshing what they claim to be another wise tired hip hop scene, Breakthru and Spread Your Wings, were greeted ecstatically by the audience, in particular what seemed to be their fans, but left me indifferent.

A couple of other numbers did stand out from the rest, such as the Rolling Stones's short and jazzy I Can Get No Satisfaction and Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name which had a nice swing to it.

Otherwise it was much of the same throughout.