Time & Location
20 Jun 2026, 20:00 – 21:40
Teatru Manoel, Old Theatre Street, Il-Belt Valletta, Malta
About the event
The Malta International Arts Festival presents the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra with an exciting programme for string orchestra. This concert features Michael Laus behind the baton and the piano keyboard for Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra (1979). In this concerto Schnittke contrasts driving virtuosity with evocative episodes of lyricism and dissonance. Unfolding as a single-movement, this concerto is a journey through a kaleidoscope of musical styles and emotional states. The programme includes two 20th century masterworks for the string orchestra: Concerto in D (1946) by Igor Stravinsky and Divertimento for Strings (1939) by Béla Bartók. Both works were commissioned by Paul Sacher for the Basler Kammerorchester . Bartók’s Divertimento displays the rhythmic vitality of Eastern European folk music, mixing exuberant dance-like passages with expressive contrasts. Stravinsky’s Concerto in D highlights the composer’s crisp neoclassical style with sharply etched rhythms and inventive string writing. Structured in three movements, the piece alternates energetic drive with…