Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1463655
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 APRIL 2022 10 ALMANAC My essentials CHARLENE FARRUGIA 35, pianist Music has permeated my entire existence since I was little. Every time I touched those big white keys, I couldn't break away. I studied in Malta with Dolores Amodio, in London with Diana Ketler and in Italy with Boris Petrushansky, following the classic path that all those who start studying a musical instrument in a serious way do. I graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London and completed my doctorate with Prof. Kenneth Hamilton. 1 2 4 5 1. Book 3 2. Film 3. Internet/TV 4. Music 5. Place MICHAEL Radford's Il Pos- tino, based on the novel Il postino di Neruda by Chile- an author Antonio Skármeta is a movie that I have recent- ly watched again. This film moves me deeply for many reasons. The soundtrack, which had won the Oscar in the "Best Score" category, is a mix of accordion, clarinet, string quartet and piano, which takes the listeners to another world. RUPI Kaur is a social phe- nomenon for me. She is a poetess and illustrator, a contemporary woman, who nevertheless does not forget her origins. It is this mix of modern and old that makes her so special. Her feminin- ity is so distinct and so well mixed with extraordinary strength and determination that I find her truly captivat- ing. FOR me, Glenn Gould is "the" pianist, one of the great- est that ever lived. And this greatness is difficult to write and describe to those who do not yet know it. It must be listened to. Listened and watched. His recordings are alive, carnal like his perfor- mances at the piano, played in an extraordinarily revo- lutionary approach. A man whose interpretation sought to discover what not even the composer was fully aware of. I love the islands of Brijuni, sitiuated just off the coast of the Istrian peninsula. For me it is a place where I can go back to find myself and make peace with everything that surrounds me. Its panoramic paths help me relax and con- template on the beauty and serenity of life. Before leaving the island of Brijuni and its peace, I never miss a dip in the crystal-clear waters that surround it. RECENTLY I read The Bronze Horseman, a book that every- one seems to have read. The setting of this novel is, the Second World War in St. Pe- tersburg, a city that gradual- ly becomes robbed of all its wealth and emptied of its peo- ple, giving way to misery and pain. The descriptions of the landscapes are accurate and rich, a sign of an excellent re- search work by the author. It had been a long time since I had discovered such an intense book. Highly recommended, to everyone!