11 - 29 January 2023
Photo by Youngho Kang
THE THREE PALACES
Organised by Festivals Malta, the festival focuses on the premise that “our ordinary is actually extraordinary”, which is coming from the fact that in Malta we are surrounded by magnificent buildings that we pass by every day and barely notice their beauty. It gives life to the philosophy that everyone should have access to heritage sites, to the transcendent beauty of art, as well as the right to participate in the expression of music. Audiences experience intimate performances in the grandeur of some of Malta’s finest palaces and indulge in forms of artistic expression that reflect the identity of the nation and beyond. Emerging artists perform alongside the finest established artists in Malta and internationally.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Artistic Director
The 11th Edition of the Valletta Baroque Festival is underway and it is as eclectic as ever. After two agonizingly long years of postponements due to the pandemic we now have a splendiferous programme that had been in accumulation since 2019. Besides the time honoured baroque composers; Bach, Handel and the rest of the sacred band’s music played on baroque instruments we have transcriptions and paraphrases for piano, wind instruments, saxophones, organ and even a rock band. I wanted to highlight the enormous versatility of the baroque idiom and its mass appeal. Above all the festival’s strength lies in the wonderful baroque settings that one finds in Valletta and the Maltese archipelago; a precious legacy that each and every one of us Maltese treasure…
TICKETS
We are having temporary issues with our ticketing system. Please let us have your email to contact you as soon as we are back online. We trust that this will be fixed very soon.
PROGRAMME 2023
11 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Valletta Baroque Ensemble and Kor Malta.
Venue: St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta
The Dettingen Te Deum and other Handelian hits
The Dettingen Te Deum was written in commemoration of the last battle led by an English king; specifically, George II in 1743. This concert will feature two other Handel masterpieces;
Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 11, Zadok the Priest, and Eternal Source of Light Divine.
12 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Bach Cantatas, BWV131, 13, 106
Alia Mens dir. Olivier Spilmont
Venue: Parish Church of the Annunciation, Tarxien
Eloquentia
Bach begins the creation of what he judges to be the core of his work with his cantatas. He was always concerned for his works to be organised through games of symmetry and alternation creating a balanced structure to the expression of his thoughts.
13 January 2023 | 4:00pm
Avi Avital (mandolin)
Venue: Bibliotheca, Valletta
Bach on Mandolin
The first mandolin soloist to be nominated for a classical Grammy, Avi Avital has been compared to Andres Segovia for his championship of his instrument and to Jascha Heifitz for his incredible virtuosity. Avital is a driving force behind the reinvigoration of the mandolin repertoire.
13 January 2023 | 8:00pm
BWV1066-1069
Les Passions de l’Âme
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
Bach - The Four Orchestral Suites
Similar to the set of the six Brandenburg concertos, the orchestration of the four orchestral suites varies somewhat, highlighting different instruments. They are very rarely played together and consist of an ‘ouverture’ followed by a set of dance movements in the French style.
14 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Accademia del Piacere
Venue: Archaeology Museum, Valletta
Diálogos de viejos y nuevos sones
This concert approaches baroque instruments through roots music that like flamenco is a constant growth of new branches from the trunk of tradition, a constant interaction between the new and the old.
14 January 2023 | 8:00pm
Accademia del Piacere
Venue: Archaeology Museum, Valletta
Chorales for Violas da Gamba and Organ
Bach's organ chorales are one of the most surprising jewels in the creative corpus of the great Johann Sebastian Bach. The consort of violas da gamba can perfectly replicate the texture and colour of the organ, so transcribing this music for this ensemble becomes a very respectful and fluid metamorphic process.
15 January 2023 | 11:00am
Abchordis Trio
Venue: Cathedral Museum, Mdina
Sonate da Camera del Barocco Napoletano
It was in the aristocratic salons and academies of Naples that instrumental chamber music flourished. Concerts were often open to the public in the houses of the nobility. This programme recreates this atmosphere in a selection of chamber sonatas by the greatest composers of the Neapolitan school.
15 January 2023 | 3:00pm
Lautten Compagney BERLIN
Venue: Verdala Palace, Buskett
Biber & Piazzolla
This programme brings together music by two composers from different eras that at first glance have nothing in common, however the juxtaposition of these two genres of music by lautten compagney BERLIN is very intriguing and aesthetically pleasing.
15 January 2023 | 6:00pm
Weaver Ensemble
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
The Remarkably Talented Mr Weaver Presents...
An eighteenth-century choreographic fantasy set to music by Clarke, Croft, Eccles, Finger, Lully, Paisible and Purcell, devised and created by Stephen Wyatt & Evelyn Nallen telling the story about how English choreographer John Weaver fought to achieve his dream of creating a proper dance-drama in a world that regarded dance as a frivolous side-line.
18 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Sarah Spiteri (baroque viola) and Pablo Zapico (theorbo)
Venue: Bibliotheca, Valletta
Music from the Court of Versailles
The programme to be performed is for music written for viola da gamba which adapts itself beautifully to the baroque viola because of the similar range and texture. The composers proposed for this programme were all master viola da gambists.
18 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Gabetta Consort with Valer Barna-Sabadus (countertenor)
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
Baroque quintessence of Handel & Vivaldi
When one thinks of Baroque music, Handel and Vivaldi are amongst the first names to come to mind. Both composers are also well-known for their wide range of repertoire written for castrato, today widely performed by countertenors.
19 January 2023 | 12:00pm
SIGNUM Saxophone Quartet and Kai Schumacher (piano)
Venue: Phoenicia Hotel Ballroom, Floriana
Goldberg Nights
Tranquillity and trance, ecstasy and exhaustion, dream, and reality – with this new programme the SIGNUM saxophone quartet and Kai Schumacher on piano embark on an odyssey through the realms of possibility and contrast called The Golberg Nights Project, originally inspired by this festival’s artistic director.
19 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri
Venue: Collegiate Basilica of St Helen, Birkirkara
Mozart in Milan
In 1773 Mozart’s famous motet Exultate Jubilate was premiered at the church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Milan. Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri have created Mozart in Milan, commemorating this music and other Milanese sacred music by Mozart’s Milanese contemporaries; Gianandrea Fioroni, Johann Christian Bach and Melchiorre Chiesa.
20 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord) Jonathan Keates (narrator)
Venue: St Mary of Jesus Church (Ta' Ġieżu), Rabat
Kuhnau Biblical Sonatas
Amongst the last of his publications, Johann Kuhnau's Musicalische Vorstellung Einiger Biblischer Historien (1700) stands in his keyboard output as the most emphatic manifestation of the multi-faceted mind and activity of one of Baroque music's most remarkable polymaths.
20 January 2023 | 4:00pm
Bux WV75
Valletta Baroque Ensemble and Kor Malta
Venue: Santa Tereża ta' Ġesù, Cospicua
Buxtehude: Membra Jesu Nostri
Buxtehude’s cantata cycle, Membra Jesu Nostri, is a unique work based on texts from a mediaeval Latin hymn, ‘Salve mundi salutare’. The cycle contains seven cantatas each dedicated to a different part of Christ’s crucified body.
20 January 2023 | 8:00pm
Robert Bachara & Capella Cracoviensis
Venue: Church of the Immaculate Conception, Cospicua
Biber's Rosary Sonatas
The Rosary Sonatas are a group of fifteen short sonatas and a passacaglia for violin and basso continuo written by Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber around 1674. Rooted in Biber’s long-time employment with the court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, they are rare examples of instrumental sacred music.
21 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Arsenale Sonoro dir. Boris Begelman with Francesca Aspromonte (soprano)
Venue: Parish Church of the Assumption, Għaxaq
Ardet Meum Cor
The image of the burning heart is a very well-known catholic symbol of Jesus’ love for humanity. This is translated into verse and music in this collection of motets and sonatas by Corelli, Bonporti and Handel.
21 January 2023 | 8:00pm
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Trevor Bowes as Polifemo
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
Handel: Aci, Galatea e Polifemo
Duchess Aurora di Sanseverino commissioned this opera for a wedding celebration in Naples; on a spicy Italian libretto penned by her private secretary Nicola Giuvo. Handel composed Aci in his early twenties, during the highly formative years he spent in Italy. The most famous aria for lyric bass from this opera is Fra L’Ombre e Gl'Orrori.
22 January 2023 | 11:00am
Steven Devine
Venue: Cathedral Museum, Mdina
Rameau's Divine Keyboard
The publication of Rameau’s Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin marked an important development in his compositional technique. Unusually for 18th century music, Rameau and his contemporaries anticipated the impressionistic music of Debussy because of their very strong descriptive element.
22 January 2023 | 3:00pm
Steven Devine and Kate Semmens
Venue: Cathedral Museum, Mdina
Delicatessen
This programme explores the work of English composers from the 17th and 18th centuries well-known for their art in enhancing the meaning of words through music. Many of the texts explore simple pastoral scenes where shepherds and shepherdesses fall in and out of love, sometimes with disastrous consequences.
25 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Prisma
Venue: Verdala Palace, Buskett
Streets of London
PRISMA takes us on a trip through the pubs and bars of London and explores the British dance music of the 17th century. This programme brings melodies of the famous collection ‘The English Dancing Master’ as well as music from ‘The Division Violin’, Scottish and Irish Folk tunes, and even some later hits like ‘Danny Boy’ – all performed in the spontaneous and lively PRISMA style!
25 January 2023 | 7:30pm
L'Arte del Mondo with Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli (soprano)
Venue: Casino Maltese, Valletta
Delirio Amoroso
These works include extensive, enormously extroverted solo cantatas for soprano. They are rarely heard, and unlike many other works by Handel from his Italian period, they have not yet regained the attention they deserve. Thus ‘Delirio Amoroso’ is not just a flowery made-up title, but an extremely colourful body of work by a young composer full of joie de vivre and original ideas.
26 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Roberto Cominati (piano)
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
Spectacular Piano Transcriptions
In this performance, the great season of the late Baroque is reinterpreted through the experiences of successive historical periods. The harpsichord originals by Scarlatti, Handel and Rameau come to life on the piano keyboard and are confronted with the reinterpretations proposed by the great pianists/transcribers of the twentieth century.
26 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Camerata Kilkenny
Venue: Verdala Palace, Buskett
The Piper and the Fairy Queen
The connections between baroque and traditional Irish music are explored in this fascinating concert which brings together the traditional music skills of uilleann piper David Power with acclaimed early music group Camerata Kilkenny.
27 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Charlie Siem (violin)
Venue: Palazzo Parisio, Naxxar
Bach Spectacular Violin
Virtuoso Charlie Siem returns to the Valletta Baroque Festival with a Bach sonata BWV 1003 and a partita BWV 1006. Passionate about bringing classical music to new audiences around the world, in addition to his classical performance career Siem has revived the age-old violinistic tradition of composing virtuosic variations of popular themes.
27 January 2023 | 4:00pm
Passacaglia Trio
Venue: Verdala Palace, Buskett
To Touch the Heart
Frederick the Great of Prussia was a keen flautist and musician who employed some of the most celebrated and talented composers and performers of the age, including Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach as well as the famous flautist, teacher, and writer Johann Joachim Quantz. This concert consists of works directly connected to King Frederick and his wonderful ‘enlightened’ court at Sanssouci.
27 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Malta Philharmonic Orchestra
Venue: Church of the Circumcision of our Lord (Jesuits), Valletta
Inspired by Baroque
Inspired by Baroque consists of 20th century and contemporary music for modern orchestras inspired by the Baroque idiom. This concert will consist of works by Prokofiev, Grieg, Strauss and Maltese composer Veronique Vella.
28 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Palisander
Venue: Malta Maritime Museum, Vittoriosa
Beware the Spider
At a time when human knowledge and understanding of the world around them was developing with increasing speed, the continued belief in curing spider bites with music seems all the more extraordinary. This concert celebrates this belief.
28 January 2023 | 4:00pm
Hansjörg Albrecht (organ)
Venue: Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Balluta
Vivaldi Quattro Stagioni & Handel: Royal Fireworks Music
This recital consists of two of the most famous works by Handel and Vivaldi opulently transcribed for the "queen of instruments", the organ, which gives them a completely new dimension.
28 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Ensemble Divino Sospiro
Venue: Basilica of St Dominic, Valletta
Alessandro Scarlatti: Il Giardino di Rose
Alessandro Scarlatti’s oratorio Il Giardino di Rose dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary was commissioned by Prince Francesco Maria Ruspoli and was performed in Palazzo Bonelli in Rome on Easter Sunday 1707. This oratorio by the Palermitan composer, was only recently rediscovered and is extremely innovative in style for its time.
28 January 2023 | 9:30pm
The Rock Troupers
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
BaRock
The Rock Troupers are returning with a bang to the Valletta Baroque Festival together with six classical baroque musicians. This rock band will present re-works of Rock and Baroque classics from Bach to Jon Lord and from Vivaldi to Pink Floyd.
29 January 2023 | 10:30am
Cantarlontano/The Monteverdi Project dir. Marco Mencoboni
Venue: Church of the Circumcision of our Lord (Jesuits), Valletta
Abos: Mass in G (World premiere)
A liturgical Mass in G for voices and instruments by the Italo-Maltese composer Girolamo Abos. This music was preserved in the Library of the Conservatory of Music S. Pietro a Majella in Naples under the signature M. Rel. 8. This particularmass can be distinguished from others written by Abos due to the presence of the timpani in the score.
PROGRAMME 2023
11 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Valletta Baroque Ensemble and Kor Malta.
Venue: St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta
The Dettingen Te Deum and other Handelian hits
The Dettingen Te Deum was written in commemoration of the last battle led by an English king; specifically, George II in 1743. This concert will feature two other Handel masterpieces;
Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 11, Zadok the Priest, and Eternal Source of Light Divine.
12 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Bach Cantatas, BWV131, 13, 106
Alia Mens dir. Olivier Spilmont
Venue: Parish Church of the Annunciation, Tarxien
Eloquentia
Bach begins the creation of what he judges to be the core of his work with his cantatas. He was always concerned for his works to be organised through games of symmetry and alternation creating a balanced structure to the expression of his thoughts.
13 January 2023 | 4:00pm
Avi Avital (mandolin)
Venue: Bibliotheca, Valletta
Bach on Mandolin
The first mandolin soloist to be nominated for a classical Grammy, Avi Avital has been compared to Andres Segovia for his championship of his instrument and to Jascha Heifitz for his incredible virtuosity. Avital is a driving force behind the reinvigoration of the mandolin repertoire.
13 January 2023 | 8:00pm
BWV1066-1069
Les Passions de l’Âme
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
Bach - The Four Orchestral Suites
Similar to the set of the six Brandenburg concertos, the orchestration of the four orchestral suites varies somewhat, highlighting different instruments. They are very rarely played together and consist of an ‘ouverture’ followed by a set of dance movements in the French style.
14 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Accademia del Piacere
Venue: Archaeology Museum, Valletta
Diálogos de viejos y nuevos sones
This concert approaches baroque instruments through roots music that like flamenco is a constant growth of new branches from the trunk of tradition, a constant interaction between the new and the old.
14 January 2023 | 8:00pm
Accademia del Piacere
Venue: Archaeology Museum, Valletta
Chorales for Violas da Gamba and Organ
Bach's organ chorales are one of the most surprising jewels in the creative corpus of the great Johann Sebastian Bach. The consort of violas da gamba can perfectly replicate the texture and colour of the organ, so transcribing this music for this ensemble becomes a very respectful and fluid metamorphic process.
15 January 2023 | 11:00am
Abchordis Trio
Venue: Cathedral Museum, Mdina
Sonate da Camera del Barocco Napoletano
It was in the aristocratic salons and academies of Naples that instrumental chamber music flourished. Concerts were often open to the public in the houses of the nobility. This programme recreates this atmosphere in a selection of chamber sonatas by the greatest composers of the Neapolitan school.
15 January 2023 | 3:00pm
Lautten Compagney BERLIN
Venue: Verdala Palace, Buskett
Biber & Piazzolla
This programme brings together music by two composers from different eras that at first glance have nothing in common, however the juxtaposition of these two genres of music by lautten compagney BERLIN is very intriguing and aesthetically pleasing.
15 January 2023 | 6:00pm
Weaver Ensemble
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
The Remarkably Talented Mr Weaver Presents...
An eighteenth-century choreographic fantasy set to music by Clarke, Croft, Eccles, Finger, Lully, Paisible and Purcell, devised and created by Stephen Wyatt & Evelyn Nallen telling the story about how English choreographer John Weaver fought to achieve his dream of creating a proper dance-drama in a world that regarded dance as a frivolous side-line.
18 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Sarah Spiteri (baroque viola) and Pablo Zapico (theorbo)
Venue: Bibliotheca, Valletta
Music from the Court of Versailles
The programme to be performed is for music written for viola da gamba which adapts itself beautifully to the baroque viola because of the similar range and texture. The composers proposed for this programme were all master viola da gambists.
18 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Gabetta Consort with Valer Barna-Sabadus (countertenor)
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
Baroque quintessence of Handel & Vivaldi
When one thinks of Baroque music, Handel and Vivaldi are amongst the first names to come to mind. Both composers are also well-known for their wide range of repertoire written for castrato, today widely performed by countertenors.
19 January 2023 | 12:00pm
SIGNUM Saxophone Quartet and Kai Schumacher (piano)
Venue: Archaeology Museum, Valletta
Goldberg Nights
Tranquillity and trance, ecstasy and exhaustion, dream, and reality – with this new programme the SIGNUM saxophone quartet and Kai Schumacher on piano embark on an odyssey through the realms of possibility and contrast called The Golberg Nights Project, originally inspired by this festival’s artistic director.
19 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri
Venue: Collegiate Basilica of St Helen, Birkirkara
Mozart in Milan
In 1773 Mozart’s famous motet Exultate Jubilate was premiered at the church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Milan. Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri have created Mozart in Milan, commemorating this music and other Milanese sacred music by Mozart’s Milanese contemporaries; Gianandrea Fioroni, Johann Christian Bach and Melchiorre Chiesa.
20 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord) Jonathan Keates (narrator)
Venue: St Mary of Jesus Church (Ta' Ġieżu), Rabat
Kuhnau Biblical Sonatas
Amongst the last of his publications, Johann Kuhnau's Musicalische Vorstellung Einiger Biblischer Historien (1700) stands in his keyboard output as the most emphatic manifestation of the multi-faceted mind and activity of one of Baroque music's most remarkable polymaths.
20 January 2023 | 4:00pm
Bux WV75
Valletta Baroque Ensemble and Kor Malta
Venue: Santa Tereża ta' Ġesù, Cospicua
Buxtehude: Membra Jesu Nostri
Buxtehude’s cantata cycle, Membra Jesu Nostri, is a unique work based on texts from a mediaeval Latin hymn, ‘Salve mundi salutare’. The cycle contains seven cantatas each dedicated to a different part of Christ’s crucified body.
20 January 2023 | 8:00pm
Robert Bachara & Capella Cracoviensis
Venue: Church of the Immaculate Conception, Cospicua
Biber's Rosary Sonatas
The Rosary Sonatas are a group of fifteen short sonatas and a passacaglia for violin and basso continuo written by Bohemian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber around 1674. Rooted in Biber’s long-time employment with the court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, they are rare examples of instrumental sacred music.
21 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Arsenale Sonoro dir. Boris Begelman with Francesca Aspromonte (soprano)
Venue: Parish Church of the Assumption, Għaxaq
Ardet Meum Cor
The image of the burning heart is a very well-known catholic symbol of Jesus’ love for humanity. This is translated into verse and music in this collection of motets and sonatas by Corelli, Bonporti and Handel.
21 January 2023 | 8:00pm
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Trevor Bowes as Polifemo
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
Handel: Aci, Galatea e Polifemo
Duchess Aurora di Sanseverino commissioned this opera for a wedding celebration in Naples; on a spicy Italian libretto penned by her private secretary Nicola Giuvo. Handel composed Aci in his early twenties, during the highly formative years he spent in Italy. The most famous aria for lyric bass from this opera is Fra L’Ombre e Gl'Orrori.
22 January 2023 | 11:00am
Steven Devine
Venue: Cathedral Museum, Mdina
Rameau's Divine Keyboard
The publication of Rameau’s Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin marked an important development in his compositional technique. Unusually for 18th century music, Rameau and his contemporaries anticipated the impressionistic music of Debussy because of their very strong descriptive element.
22 January 2023 | 3:00pm
Steven Devine and Kate Semmens
Venue: Cathedral Museum, Mdina
Delicatessen
This programme explores the work of English composers from the 17th and 18th centuries well-known for their art in enhancing the meaning of words through music. Many of the texts explore simple pastoral scenes where shepherds and shepherdesses fall in and out of love, sometimes with disastrous consequences.
25 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Prisma
Venue: Verdala Palace, Buskett
Streets of London
PRISMA takes us on a trip through the pubs and bars of London and explores the British dance music of the 17th century. This programme brings melodies of the famous collection ‘The English Dancing Master’ as well as music from ‘The Division Violin’, Scottish and Irish Folk tunes, and even some later hits like ‘Danny Boy’ – all performed in the spontaneous and lively PRISMA style!
25 January 2023 | 7:30pm
L'Arte del Mondo with Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli (soprano)
Venue: Casino Maltese, Valletta
Delirio Amoroso
These works include extensive, enormously extroverted solo cantatas for soprano. They are rarely heard, and unlike many other works by Handel from his Italian period, they have not yet regained the attention they deserve. Thus ‘Delirio Amoroso’ is not just a flowery made-up title, but an extremely colourful body of work by a young composer full of joie de vivre and original ideas.
26 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Roberto Cominati (piano)
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
Spectacular Piano Transcriptions
In this performance, the great season of the late Baroque is reinterpreted through the experiences of successive historical periods. The harpsichord originals by Scarlatti, Handel and Rameau come to life on the piano keyboard and are confronted with the reinterpretations proposed by the great pianists/transcribers of the twentieth century.
26 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Camerata Kilkenny
Venue: Verdala Palace, Buskett
The Piper and the Fairy Queen
The connections between baroque and traditional Irish music are explored in this fascinating concert which brings together the traditional music skills of uilleann piper David Power with acclaimed early music group Camerata Kilkenny.
27 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Charlie Siem (violin)
Venue: Palazzo Parisio, Naxxar
Bach Spectacular Violin
Virtuoso Charlie Siem returns to the Valletta Baroque Festival with a Bach sonata BWV 1003 and a partita BWV 1006. Passionate about bringing classical music to new audiences around the world, in addition to his classical performance career Siem has revived the age-old violinistic tradition of composing virtuosic variations of popular themes.
27 January 2023 | 4:00pm
Passacaglia Trio
Venue: Verdala Palace, Buskett
To Touch the Heart
Frederick the Great of Prussia was a keen flautist and musician who employed some of the most celebrated and talented composers and performers of the age, including Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach as well as the famous flautist, teacher, and writer Johann Joachim Quantz. This concert consists of works directly connected to King Frederick and his wonderful ‘enlightened’ court at Sanssouci.
27 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Malta Philharmonic Orchestra
Venue: Church of the Circumcision of our Lord (Jesuits), Valletta
Inspired by Baroque
Inspired by Baroque consists of 20th century and contemporary music for modern orchestras inspired by the Baroque idiom. This concert will consist of works by Prokofiev, Grieg, Strauss and Maltese composer Veronique Vella.
28 January 2023 | 12:00pm
Palisander
Venue: Malta Maritime Museum, Vittoriosa
Beware the Spider
At a time when human knowledge and understanding of the world around them was developing with increasing speed, the continued belief in curing spider bites with music seems all the more extraordinary. This concert celebrates this belief.
28 January 2023 | 4:00pm
Hansjörg Albrecht (organ)
Venue: Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Balluta
Vivaldi Quattro Stagioni & Handel: Royal Fireworks Music
This recital consists of two of the most famous works by Handel and Vivaldi opulently transcribed for the "queen of instruments", the organ, which gives them a completely new dimension.
28 January 2023 | 7:30pm
Ensemble Divino Sospiro
Venue: Basilica of St Dominic, Valletta
Alessandro Scarlatti: Il Giardino di Rose
Alessandro Scarlatti’s oratorio Il Giardino di Rose dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary was commissioned by Prince Francesco Maria Ruspoli and was performed in Palazzo Bonelli in Rome on Easter Sunday 1707. This oratorio by the Palermitan composer, was only recently rediscovered and is extremely innovative in style for its time.
28 January 2023 | 9:30pm
The Rock Troupers
Venue: Teatru Manoel, Valletta
BaRock
The Rock Troupers are returning with a bang to the Valletta Baroque Festival together with six classical baroque musicians. This rock band will present re-works of Rock and Baroque classics from Bach to Jon Lord and from Vivaldi to Pink Floyd.
29 January 2023 | 10:30am
Cantarlontano/The Monteverdi Project dir. Marco Mencoboni
Venue: Church of the Circumcision of our Lord (Jesuits), Valletta
Abos: Mass in G (World premiere)
A liturgical Mass in G for voices and instruments by the Italo-Maltese composer Girolamo Abos. This music was preserved in the Library of the Conservatory of Music S. Pietro a Majella in Naples under the signature M. Rel. 8. This particularmass can be distinguished from others written by Abos due to the presence of the timpani in the score.
Our Hospitality Partners & Sponsors
Ludwig van Beethoven. The Complete Piano Sonata Cycle. Concert 1
Tuesday, 31 October 2023 | 7:00PM
San Anton Palace, Attard
Michael Laus - Soloist & presenter
Caroline Calleja - Pianist
Tenebrae
Tuesday, 31 October 2023 | 7:30PM
Gran Salon, Archaeology Museum, Valletta
Tricia Dawn Williams - Pianist
Ludwig van Beethoven. The Complete Piano Sonata Cycle. Concert 2
Wednesday, 1 November 2023 | 7:00PM
San Anton Palace, Attard
Michael Laus - Soloist & presenter
Maria Elena Farrugia - Pianist
Marco Rivoltini - Pianist
Exploring the Depths of Emotion - A Journey Through Time & Sound
Wednesday, 1 November 2023 | 7:30PM
Malta Society of Arts, Valletta
Timothy Edlin - Bass-baritone
Hamish Brown - Piano & Harpsichord
Ludwig van Beethoven. The Complete Piano Sonata Cycle. Concert 3
Thursday, 2 November 2023 | 7:00PM
San Anton Palace, Attard
Michael Laus - Soloist & presenter
Francis Camilleri - Pianist
Ludwig van Beethoven. The Complete Piano Sonata Cycle. Concert 4
Friday, 3 November 2023 | 7:00PM
San Anton Palace, Attard
Maria Elena Farrugia - Pianist
Francis Camilleri - Pianist
Caroline Calleja - Pianist
Julian Joseph Trio - The Jazz Giant
Friday, 3 November 2023 | 8:00PM
Gran Salon, Archaeology Museum, Valletta
Julian Joseph - Piano
Mark Hodgson - Acoustic Bass
Mark Mondesir - Drums
Ludwig van Beethoven. The Complete Piano Sonata Cycle. Concert 5
Saturday, 4 November 2023 | 7:00PM
San Anton Palace, Attard
Michael Laus - Soloist & presenter
Francis Camilleri - Pianist
Caroline Calleja - Pianist
Marco Rivoltini - Pianist
Piano in the Street
Saturday, 4 November 2023 | 10AM
St. George’s Square, Valletta, Malta
Dario Lavasero – Maestro
Camilla Sedda – Dancer & Singer
Andrea Di Profio – Dancer & Singer
Giorgia Gruosso – Dancer & Singer
Umberto Graziano – Dancer & Singer
The sights and sounds of the Cathedral
Saturday, 4 November 2023 | 2:00PM
St. John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta
Christopher Muscat – Musical Director
Ronald Camilleri – Organist
Jubilate Deo Choir - Choir
Spirit & Passion. Accordion, String Quartet, Harpsichord & Dance.
Saturday, 4 November 2023 | 7:30PM
Verdala Palace, Siġġiewi
Martynas Levickis - Accordionist
Mikroorkestra - Ensemble
Paula Guzzanti - Choreographer
Diego Ocampo Aznarez - Dancer
Goldberg Variations BWV 988
Sunday, 5 November 2023 | 11:00AM
Gran Salon, Archaeology Museum, Valletta
Carole Cerasi – Harpsichord
PROGRAMME 2023
FOREWORDS
DR MICHELLE CASTELLETTI
The Three Palaces - Foreword
A key. It can open a secret draw. It can decipher a crypt. This year’s festival is celebrating one of the most-loved and most known instruments – the piano – but in all its various guises as a keyboard. From the playful and glistening sound of a toy piano to the glorious grandeur of the pipe organ; the poise and sparkle conjured up by the harpsichord to the nobility and majesty of the grand piano. The piano can accompany, and the piano can take centre stage.
I invite you all to join us as we indulge in the passion of the Argentine tango with accordion, strings and dancers, or the virtuosity of jazz giants where fingers fly off the keyboard; the beauty and intimacy of song, or the audacity of plucking the strings inside the piano; the bucket list tick of The 32 with Beethoven’s complete piano sonata cycle, or having a go at playing the piano with your feet in the streets! I am thrilled to present The Three Palaces Festival 2023 to you, and am looking forward to welcoming everyone to Malta’s most magnificent palaces, to unlock sound with a key… for a celebration of the keyboard.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
FRANS AGIUS
Welcome to this year’s edition of The Three Palaces Festival, which is now in its eleventh edition.
The festival is known for its use of Malta’s most beautiful palaces and churches. This year, the festival will be taking its audiences to the Gran Salon in the Archaeology Museum and St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Verdala Palace in Siġġiewi, as well as SanAnton Palace in Attard. All of these are historical backdrops that captivate our audiences for an excellent cultural and artistic experience.
This time, the festival has a versatile and all-encompassing programme by Dr Michelle Castelletti, the festival’s artistic director.This edition celebrates the versatile use of the keyboard through the piano, the organ, the accordion, and the harpsichord. Theperformances will explore different ways of how these instruments are played across different genres, namely classical music, jazz, and even pop.
Festivals Malta is proud to carry on the legacy of The Three Palaces Festival. Our artists and audiences can indeed look forward to a satisfying cultural experience, where our ordinary becomes indeed extraordinary.