Presented in collaboration with the European Foundation for Support of Culture.

SERGEY SMBATYAN Conductor
INGOLF WUNDER Piano

Joseph Vella Rebbieħa, Op. 45
Alexey Shor Travel Notebook
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47

This season’s tour concert will see the orchestra open with Rebbieħa, a symphonic poem written by the late Gozitan composer Joseph Vella, before being joined by Austrian pianist Ingolf Wunder for Alexey Shor’s Travel Notebook suite for piano and orchestra.

Written months after his official denunciation, at the height of the Soviet Union’s Great Purge, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony famously ends with a cheerful finale that contrasts starkly with the tone of the rest of the work. Whether this is a faithful representation of the heroic ending the regime sought or a mocking satire is debated to this very day.

Apart from the performance in Malta, the MPO Valletta 2018 International tour will also be traveling to Philadelphia, North Bethesda, New York, Moscow and Saint Petersburg between the 27th November and the 7th December 2018. Click on the links to find out more!