This 10th anniversary edition of the International Spring Orchestra Festival will bring the final curtain down after its Closing Concert on Saturday April 9 at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. The ambitious programme of this Orchestral Concert will featuring some of the best local talent who will be interpreting works by Beethoven, Conil and the much-awaited World Premier of the piece composed by the Festival’s Artistic Director Karl Fiorini titled ‘de dioses y de perros’ (of gods and dogs).

Under the sterling direction of Mro Brian Schembri, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra will perform an eclectic programme of works together with solo soprano Claire Debono, solo pianist Lucia Micallef, the choir ‘The New Choral Singers’, and other established local artists who will join the Orchestra for Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy.

The Closing Concert will open with Roland Conil’s ‘Arianne et Dionysos’, which will also be a World Premier. This contemporary French composer, pianist and pedagogue started his career as a pianist, and then went on to become a respected composer with commissioned works from various important institutions, and this composition promises to be a luminous French soundscape.

The programme will continue with Ludwig van Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 1’, a bold musical experimentation work that is clearly highly influenced by Beethoven’s predecessors Haydn and Mozart. However, it’s also obvious that he was already expanding and moving on from what the others before him were still doing, and gives hints to later developments in his career.

The highlight of the concert, however, will undoubtedly be Karl Fiorini’s World Premier of ‘de dioses y de perros’ (of gods and dogs). Fiorini is internationally recognised as one of the new voices in classical music. Although still in his mid-30s, Fiorini’s prolific career started at the age of 10, whose opus today totals more than 50 compositions, ranging from solo to chamber music to orchestral works.

This new composition, written for soprano, choir and orchestra, is based on Spanish poet Ana Bocanegra Briasco’s crude and harsh work, which had a profound influence on the composer. Inspired by her poems, Fiorini had started sketching immediately, but had to wait another 8 years before penning the work. Like its predecessor, the Second Symphony, this composition is also based on 7 movements (chosen from Bocanegra Briasco’s 33 poems) and should also be performed as a continuous movement.

The final and closing piece for the night will be Beethoven’s ‘Choral Fantasy’, which he wrote to conclude his own benefit concert in 1808, and whose long program also presented the first performances of his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and the Fourth Piano Concerto. The unusual composition, which unites piano, voices and orchestra, has a choral section at the end which shows similarities in themes to the finale of his later Ninth Symphony.

Joining the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and Mro Schembri on the Manoel Theatre stage for this Closing Concert, will be two Maltese artists of international renown. Paris-based soprano Claire Debono will be singing the solo parts of Fiorini’s new work, while solo pianist Lucia Micallef will be performing the piano solo parts of Beethoven’s ‘Choral Fantasy’. Together with The New Choral Singers, they will interpret what Mro Schembri called ‘a rather contemporary programme based around the amalgamation of the different elements: the soloists, choir and orchestra’, in what promises to be a very exciting night.

The International Spring Orchestra Festival’s Closing Concert is one not to be missed. It will be a unique opportunity to experience great pieces of music interpreted by incredible musicians. It will be held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta, on Saturday April 9 at 8pm. For more information and for regular updates on events, visit the ISOF website at www.iso-festival.com. Tickets at €15, €20 and €25 (free for children 15 years and under and with a 50% discount to students and senior citizens) can be purchased from the theatre’s website www.mcc.com.mt, through www.ticketline.com.mt, or by sending an email to bookings@mcc.com.mt.