presented by the Valletta International Baroque Festival 

GIANLUCA MARCIANÒ Conductor

Béla Bartók Divertimento for String Orchestra Sz. 113, BB. 118
Leos Janáček Idyll Suite for String Orchestra 
Igor Stravinsky Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks”

The MPO returns to the Valletta International Baroque Festival with a socially-distant concert featuring Bartók’s neo-classical Divertimento. Commissioned by Paul Sacher, Baroque traits include fugal elements and compositional textures. 

The Suite, Janáček’s second-longest orchestral work written at the age of 24 captures Moravian and Czech folk roots with a final movement bearing a resemblance to Handel’s contrapuntal style. 

The Concerto was commissioned to Stravinsky to celebrate the thirtieth wedding anniversary of a well-off family regularly hosting musical soirees. Inspired by the layout of their elaborate gardens at Dumbarton Oaks, the work is defined by the composer as a “little concerto in the style of the Brandenburg Concertos.