Programme
Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785)
“L’inimico delle Donne” Overture
Antonio Caldara ( 1670-1736)
Sinfonia a quattro in D major, No.1 “Il Martirio Di San Terenziano”
Adagio
Allegro
Presto
Baldassare Galuppi
Concerto a quattro, No.1 in G minor
Grave e Adagio
Spiritoso
Allegro
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi ( 1710-1736)
Sinfonia in F major
Maestoso sostenuto
Andante
Allegro
Antonio Vivaldi ( 1678-1741)
Concerto for strings in G minor, RV 157
Allegro
Largo
Allegro
Francesco Geminiani( 1687-1762)
Concerto Grosso in D minor, H.143 “La Follia”
Performers
De Valette Chamber Orchestra Ensemble
Carmine Lauri, 1st Violin
Dmitry Khakhamov, 2nd Violin
Jano Lisboa, Viola
Emma Denton, Cello
Francesca Lauri, Harpsichord
Programme Notes
Tonight’s programme explores the brilliance and variety of 18th-century Italian music, where opera, sacred works, and instrumental concertos flourished side by side. We open with the overture to Baldassare Galuppi’s comic opera L’inimico delle Donne (The Enemy of Women). Galuppi, nicknamed “the father of comic opera,” delighted audiences with wit and charm, qualities that shine in this sparkling curtain-raiser. His Concerto a quattro in G minor, heard later, reveals a more serious and refined side of his craft.
Antonio Caldara, long active at the Habsburg court in Vienna, was admired for his balance of Italian melody with dramatic intensity. His Sinfonia a quattro in D major comes from the oratorio Il Martirio Di San Terenziano, offering noble energy and striking contrasts in compact form.
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, who died tragically at 26, nonetheless left a lasting mark. His graceful Sinfonia in F major shows why his music was treasured across Europe for its freshness and elegance.
Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Strings in G minor, RV 157 captures his trademark fire and rhythmic drive, packed into a concise but powerful frame. The evening concludes with Francesco Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso in D minor, “La Follia.” Based on a centuries-old dance theme, the work unfolds as a dazzling chain of variations - by turns fiery, tender, and virtuosic - bringing the concert to a brilliant and dramatic close.
Biographies
Carmine Lauri, Violin
As a long-time member of the London Symphony Orchestra, Carmine led the orchestra for the past 25 years under distinguished conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir John Eliott Gardiner, Sir Antonio Pappano and Gianandrea Noseda, just to name a few, and had the privilege to have led the orchestra in concert for both Sir Colin Davis and Bernard Haitink for their last appearance with the orchestra before their sad demise. He also premiered 2 violin concertos accompanied by the LSO both at the Barbican and the Royal Albert Hall and has earned worldwide recognition also having led the orchestra in countless soundtracks for movies including Harry Potter, Star Wars and the latest movie Maestro. He was the soloist in John Williams’s Schindler’s List in a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer himself in a special unique performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Lauri has performed extensively worldwide including performances in the presence of various Heads of State. He has guest led orchestras including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the London Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony, Manchester Camerata and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under distinguished conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Chailly, Yuri Temirkanov and Valery Gergiev.
Carmine is one of the unique musical ambassadors of his native country Malta, which, as a result of making a name for his country as a world class violinist and
soloist, bestowed upon him the Honour of Member of the Order of Merit (M.O.M). He was elected as both an Associate and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London, for his achievements in his career.
Dmitry Khakhamov, Violin
Born in Moscow into a family of musicians, Dmitry began playing the violin at the age of five, studying first with his father before entering the Gnessins Musical College and later the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory under Professor Tatiana Berkul. He continued his training in Lausanne with Pierre Amoyal and in London with György Pauk at the Royal Academy of Music, where he gained his Master’s degree and received the DipRAM award for an outstanding final recital.
Dmitry is a prize-winner at several international competitions, including the Postacchini International Violin Competition in Italy, where he was named absolute winner, as well as the Oistrakh Competition in Moscow and the Kocian Competition in the Czech Republic. He has also been awarded prizes in chamber music, most notably at the Salieri-Zinetti Competition in Verona, and was invited to perform at the prestigious Gstaad Menuhin Festival following a special prize at the Lausanne Academy.
As a soloist, Dmitry has appeared with orchestras across Europe, performing concertos by Beethoven and Mozart in Russia, Belarus, and beyond. He has toured extensively with Camerata de Lausanne and given recital series in Rome under the auspices of the Foundation Pio Sodalizio.
Since moving to the UK in 2014, Dmitry has freelanced with leading ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Philharmonia, and from 2022 to 2024 served as Co-Principal Second Violin with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He performs on an Italian violin dated 1792, attributed to the Bergonzi family of Cremona.
Jano Lisboa, Viola
Portuguese violist Jano Lisboa is a prize-winner of several major competitions, among them Portugal’s Prémio Jovens Músicos in both viola and chamber music, the NEC Mozart Concerto Competition in Boston (2006), and the Watson Forbes International Viola Competition in Scotland (2009), where he also received the special prize for best interpretation of the commissioned work. He has additionally been honoured with the Merit Citizen’s Medal in Portugal.
A former member of the Quatuor Benaïm in Paris, with whom he toured extensively across Europe, Japan, and Israel, Lisboa is currently Principal Viola of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. His career has taken him to many of the world’s leading venues, including the Berlin and Munich Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Boston’s Jordan Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall, the Herkulessaal in Munich, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
As a soloist, he has performed with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, the Latvian National Orchestra in Riga, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, and the Munich Philharmonic, in works ranging from Takemitsu’s Viola Concerto to Strauss’s Don Quixote, as well as romances by Bruch and Vaughan Williams.
Lisboa is also a dedicated chamber musician and a frequent guest at international festivals, collaborating with artists such as Lisa Batiashvili, Leif Ove Andsnes, Antje Weithaas, Jörg Widmann, Tabea Zimmermann, and François Leleux, as well as the Endellion, Carmina, and Kuss Quartets. He appears with Sarah Christian on her Berlin Classics Tchaikovsky album (2021) in Souvenir de Florence.
Jano Lisboa plays a 1932 viola by Ettore Siega.
Emma Denton, Cello
Emma Denton studied at the Royal Academy of Music where she received many of the top awards including the Louise Child Prize for the highest overall degree, the David Martin/Florence Hooten Concerto prize and the Max Pirani and Harry Isaacs chamber music prizes. She was the winner of the Muriel Taylor Scholarship and was selected to perform alongside Rostropovitch at the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Emma has performed concerti with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic, Britten Sinfonia, London Soloists and recently recorded ‘The Sacred Veil’ for Decca with VOCES8 and the Grammy-winning composer Eric Whitacre. Emma has performed for more than 25 years as the cellist of the acclaimed Carducci Quartet. They have appeared at major concert halls around the world and their Naxos recordings of Philip Glass Quartets have had over fifteen million streams on Spotify.
Emma plays on a Ruggieri cello c. 1685.
Francesca Lauri, Harpsichord
Francesca Lauri is sought after as a collaborative pianist specialising in the vocal repertoire of song and opera. She won the collaborative piano prize at the 2024 Royal Over-Seas League competition, and previously the 2023 AESS Dorothy Richardson English Song Prize and the 2022 Somerset Song Prize. Francesca was a finalist in the 2024 Kathleen Ferrier competition alongside prize winners Madeline Boreham and Charlotte Jane Kennedy.
She recently made her BBC Radio 3 debut alongside duo partner Dafydd Jones after their performance at the Wigmore Hall in which he won the ROSL Gold Medal. As a Young Artist, Francesca has participated in various programmes such as Leeds Lieder, Samling and Shipston Song and Oxford Song. She is passionate about French Mélodie and was the Viola Tunnard Scholar during her time as a Britten Pears Young Artist where she worked closely with Susan Manoff, Veronique Gens and Audrey Hyland on French Song repertoire. She is currently a Wigmore French Song Exchange Artist. In 2022, she graduated from Trinity Laban,under the tutelage of Sergio de Simone, with First-Class Honours, receiving the TCL Silver Medal for piano studies and the David Gosling Prize for Piano Accompaniment. Francesca is the current Lord and Lady Lurgan collaborative piano fellow for the RCM vocal department.
De Valette Chamber Orchestra
The De Valette Chamber Orchestra stands as a refined embodiment of Malta’s cultural identity on the international classical music stage. It is guided by the visionary leadership of its own Music Director and Concertmaster, worldwide renowned Carmine Lauri, acclaimed Concertmaster and Principal Emeritus of the London Symphony Orchestra. Lauri’s leadership amplifies the orchestra’s ambition to foster meaningful artistic partnerships with world-class performers.
The De Valette Chamber Orchestra brings together musicians from some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras―including the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, The Orchestre National de Lyon, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica or the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra Amsterdam.
Further elevating the orchestra’s artistic profile is the appointment of German cellist Maximilian Hornung as Artist-in-Residence. Maximilian Hornung is recognized as one of the preeminent cellists of his generation.
DVCO united by a shared dedication to artistic excellence. DVCO musicians from diverse countries come together on one stage to showcase the Maltese rich heritage, placing it firmly as a distinguished Ambassador of Culture on the international platform.