Programme

J. Vella In Memoriam op. 96

R. Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

G. Farrugia Messa pei defunti

Antonino Interisano is a Sicilian tenor whose lyrical-dramatic voice enables him to tackle the most intriguing repertoire with confidence and assertion. He began his voice studies privately at the young age of nineteen. In 2000, he was coached professionally by Katia Ricciarelli, after which he had the privilege to further improve his technique with Leone Magiera, and theatre studies with the legendary Luciano Pavarotti. His debut was at the Teatro dell’Opera, Rome, in the role of Rodolfo in La bohème. In the past decade, his repertoire has grown impressively, with the interpretation of the most demanding operatic roles.

In the same manner, Interisano’s concert activity is equally rich. He has performed extensively, namely, for the Radio-Sinfonie Orchestre, Krakau, which launched him in the most famous concert halls in Germany, not least the Gewandhaus, Leipzig, the Philharmonic, Munich, and not least the prestigious Berliner Philharmonie.

Louis Andrew Cassar is an active Maltese baritone in both opera and sacred genres. Amongst the many interesting projects in which he was on board, Louis featured in the APS’s Bank project in reviving Antonio Nani’s Requiem Mass with the Bulgarian Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Mro Joseph Vella; singing the role of St Paul in the world premiere of Monsignor Marco Firisina’s Oratorio Fino ai confine della terra with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Monsignor Firisina himself, and the VIAF concert in 2019 during which both Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and Felix Mendelssohn’s Die Walpurgisnacht were performed. 2024 also proved to be quite demanding for Louis, since in January he featured in another premiere of the Mro Christopher Muscat’s Oratorio Hawn F’nofs l-Għar Musbieħ qed jixgħel, as part of the Agape Music Festival, and was also involved in the premiere of the late Mro Joseph Vella’s unfinished Opera Valeriana, the Titan’s Rock op. 155, which premiered on the 4th of May 2024. Last year, Cassar also sang once again the role of St Paul in Mgr Firisina’s Oratorio, this time under the abled baton of Mro Christopher Muscat in the Basilica Santi Apostoli, Rome, together with the Jubilate Deo Choir and the Orchestra Sinfonica Città’ di Roma.

Philip Walsh was born in Southampton, England, where he studied piano and organ and went on to read music as organ scholar at Queens’ College, Cambridge University, studying with the renowned Bach specialist Peter Hurford. After graduating he spent several years in New Zealand, where he was Director of Music at Wellington Cathedral and conductor of the symphonic chorus the Orpheus Choir. 

On his return to Europe, he has worked for L’Opéra de Metz, l’Opéra de Bordeaux, English Touring Opera, Almeida Opera, London, and the Aldeburgh Festival. He made his Spanish debut conducting Don Giovanni for Opera en Vigo.  Orchestras he has conducted include the London Sinfonietta, the City Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong, Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale, Bologna, l’Orchestre National de Lorraine, RTS Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. 

His credits include his debut at La Fenice, Venice, conducting Pier Luigi Pizzi’s production of Thomas Ades’s Powder her Face, also appearing at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and the Lugo Opera Festival. He also worked with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, having appeared with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in concerts in Parma, Modena, and Ferrara, and with jazz legend Dee Dee Bridgewater in the Verona Jazz Festival.

He was the artistic director of the French opera festival Lyrique-en-mer for whom he conducted over 200 performances, including Bluebeard’s Castle, Rigoletto, Tosca, Falstaff, La Cenerentola, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, Die Zauberflöte, Otello, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Don Pasquale, La Traviata, I Pagliacci and Gianni Schicchi as well as Bach Johannes-Passion, Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung. 

A frequent performer in Malta, he has conducted Teatru Manoel’s productions of L’Elisir d’amore and Orphée et Euridice, and the Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy of Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. He has been conducting the opening and closing concerts of the Victoria International Arts Festival as its resident conductor since 2018.

The Laudate Pueri Choir was formally set up in 1976 on the initiative of then seminarian Joseph Farrugia, later Archpriest of the Basilica of St George, Victoria – Gozo.  Nevertheless, it knows its roots to a much earlier and deeply established tradition of sacred music performed at the principal parish church of Gozo.  The main objective of the choir has been the cultivation and promotion of sacred music within the liturgical context, with particular emphasis on sacred polyphony.  In this regard, the choir has established for itself a sound reputation as leading interpreter of polyphonic music of both the classic and the contemporary idioms.  The choir is also the first and, to date, the only Maltese one to perform as an all-female ensemble (SSAA).  During the past forty-two years, the Laudate Pueri Choir has enhanced the musical tradition of St George’s Basilica and won for it a reputation that has spread beyond the shores of the island of Gozo.  It has performed in Italy, France, England, and New York.  Among many initiatives, the choir has masterminded the restoration works carried out on the prestigious Santucci 1781 Organ at St George’s Basilica, and has hosted the Ely Cathedral Choir, Canterbury Cathedral, The London Festival Singers, Oxford Girls’ Choir, Portsmouth Cathedral Choir and, three times, in 2007, 2013, and 2017, the most famous choir in the world, Cappella Musicale Pontificia ‘Sistina’.  In 2019, the Choir also welcomed and hosted the Symphonischer Chor Hamburg.  For the past twenty-five years, the Choir has also been organising the Victoria International Arts Festival, which has become Malta’s biggest and longest-running early Summer Festival, attracting artistes from all over the world.

Laudate Pueri Choir has been instrumental in the performance of big choral works, such as Verdi’s Requiem (1988, 2002), Orff’s Carmina Burana (1989, 2005), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (1990, 1996), Lloyd Webber’s Requiem (2005), Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms (2011, 2015), Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms (2016), as well as opera productions such as Turandot (1995, 2008), Macbeth (1997, 2007), Aida (1999, 2016), La Gioconda (2000), Un Ballo in Maschera (2002), Lucia di Lammermoor (1988. 2017), Otello (2003, 2013), Tosca (2004), La Bohème (2005, 2015), and Suor Angelica, Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana (2006), Norma (2011), and Madama Butterfly (2012), Otello (2013) and Nabucco (2014), and many more, all staged at Teatru Astra.  In June 2007, the Choir was expressly invited by then director of the Cappella Musicale Pontificia ‘Sistina’, Mgr Giuseppe Liberto, to officially participate in the Papal Mass celebrating the canonisation of Dun Gorg Preca.  On that same day the Choir was also invited to sing High Mass, presided by Mgr Charles Scicluna, now Archbishop of Malta, at one of Rome’s most famous Basilicas, San Andrea della Valle.  The success with which the Choir has met is in no small measure due to its young members, most of whom are university undergraduates, postgraduates, and professionals in their respective fields.  The director of the Choir is Rev George J. Frendo, and the leader is his sister, Maria.  The Choir has issued 10 CDs, and is currently working on an ambitious project that involves the recording on CD of some of the finest sacred and secular music by Maltese composers, most of which is housed at the Mdina Cathedral Archives. 

A high-powered event in the choir’s calendar was an invitation by the Maltese Embassy in France to give a prestigious concert at the exclusive L’Invalides, Paris, to mark the French Presidency to the EU in 2008.  This was followed by High Mass at Sacré Coeur, Montmartre.  Thirteen years ago, the choir was officially invited by Dr Lawrence Gonzi, then Prime Minister, to record a CD of Dun Karm hymns in commemoration of the national poet’s 50^th anniversary of his death.  The CD was inaugurated in a concert at St John’s Cathedral on 28 April 2011.  Seven years ago, the choir was bestowed the signal honour of singing as a massed choir with the legendary Cappella Musicale Pontificia ‘Sistina’ during Epiphany Mass presided by H.H. Pope Francis at St Peter’s Basilica, Rome.  In 2017, the choir once more performed with the ‘Sistina’ at St George’s Basilica under the direction of George J. Frendo. In 2019, the choir was invited to sing High Mass presided by the late Cardinal, Prospero Grech, at Westminster Cathedral and last year they were invited by the Maltese Ambssador to Vienna, Ms Natascha Meli Daudey, to perform at the Votivkirche and the Jesuitenkirche, Vienna, on the 20^th anniversary of Malta’s accession to the European Union.

The choir has premiered numerous compositions specifically written for it by Joseph Vella, to include polyphonic a cappella works for both SSATB and SSAA formations, and large scale works such as A Canticle Cantata op. 42, The ‘Hyland’ Mass, op. 130, Symphony no. 3 op. 105 ‘The Apocalypse Verses’, and others.  The style of interpretation that the Choir adopts respects the sacred liturgical nature of the texts that is mediated through the musical forms, and emerges in all its disarming simplicity, profound depth, and undying appeal.  In this manner, the original intention of the sacred compositions, namely, the glory of God and the edification of the liturgical assembly, are respected.

The Choir’s history and reputation have helped establish Gozo as a leading exponent and interpreter of classical music, both sacred and secular.

The Cappella Sanctae Catharinae, Malta’s only male choir, was set up in 2009 by a small group of musicians sharing a common passion for late Renaissance and early Baroque polyphonic music. Originally set up as a performance project in connection with the restoration of the Church of St Catherine of Italy in Valletta, the choir received critical acclaim and the original members took the decision to make the choir a permanent fixture, giving regular performances in various venues across Malta. The choir remains unique not only for being the only all-male choir in Malta, but also for presenting early polyphonic music in its original setting. Over the years, CSC has performed in various prestigious settings including with Dame Emma Kirkby OBE, and in the first edition of the Valletta International Baroque Festival in 2013.

In 2015, the choir collaborated with renowned early music ensemble Ludus Venti to present a programme in commemoration of the 450th anniversary of the Great Siege of Malta, 1565. In 2016, CSC was invited by the Valletta Local Council to present a concert of sacred music commemorating the 450th anniversary of the founding of the city. In 2018, the choir was invited to be part of the Music in Malta: From Prehistory to Vinyl project organised by Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti. In 2019 the choir celebrated its 10th anniversary in Rome by singing in some of the Eternal City’s most prestigious churches including the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. In 2022 the choir collaborated with Heritage Malta to present a site-specific performance at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Birgu based on the life of Betta Caloiro, who was accused of witchcraft in the 17th century. Recent projects include ‘Seba’ Viżti’, a roaming choral pilgrimage around Rabat for Holy Week in 2024, and ‘Liturgia pro Sponsa Christi’, a research-based project on unique liturgies for the feast of St Catherine in 2025.

The choir is also committed towards preserving and promoting tangible and intangible heritage. CSC also seeks to collaborate with other organisations, such as Din l-Art Ħelwa and the Notarial Archives Foundation to help restore heritage and bring it back to life through music. In doing so, CSC brings music closer to the community, while promoting excellence in music.

The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra is Malta’s foremost musical institution. It was founded in April 1968, when musicians from the recently disbanded ‘Commander-in-Chief’ (C-in-C) orchestra of the Malta-based British Mediterranean Fleet regrouped as the Manoel Theatre Orchestra. It continued to serve as the theatre’s resident orchestra until September 1997, when it became an independent orchestra, taking up the name National Orchestra of Malta. The orchestra became the MPO in 2008 when it expanded into a full-size symphony orchestra, bringing together musicians from Malta, Europe and beyond.

Joseph Sammut, who was the C-in-C’s last conductor and the Manoel Theatre Orchestra’s first, was succeeded by Joseph Vella, John Galea, Michael Laus, Brian Schembri and Sergey Smbatyan. The MPO’s current resident conductor is Michael Laus. The orchestra also works with local artists including Joseph Calleja, Simon Schembri, Carmine Lauri and Miriam Gauci, as well as international guest artists including Ray Chen, Diana Damrau, José Cura, Mikhail Pletnev, Camille Thomas, Gautier Capuçon, Daniel Lozakovich and Enrico Dindo.

As Malta’s leading musical institution, the MPO averages more than one performance a week, including symphonic concerts, opera productions in Malta and Gozo, community outreach and educational initiatives, as well as various concerts of a lighter nature. During the past seasons, the MPO embarked on a Digital Transformation reaching audiences worldwide through its Online Programme.

The orchestra has performed in leading venues across the globe, including in the United States, Russia, Dubai, Germany, Austria, China, Italy, Spain and Belgium. The MPO is a keen exponent of Maltese composers, regularly performing their works in Malta and overseas, as well as frequently premiering and commissioning new compositions. It is also responsible for the training and professional development of the next generation of Maltese musicians.