The National Orchestra of Malta continues to celebrate its 10th anniversary in style with yet another grand scale concert, this time featuring the renowned Royal Choral Society of London. The Royal Choral Society is one of the leading British choirs ever to set foot in Malta, with a concert of works by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Edward Elgar. The concert will be held at the Grand Master’s Suite of the Malta Hilton this evening at 7.30pm.
The history of the Royal Choral Society reads like a “who’s who” of the greatest names in the musical world such as Charles Gounod and Sir Malcolm Sargent, the latter considered to be the finest British conductor of his generation. The present Music Director Richard Cooke, who will be conducting this concert, took over the baton from his illustrious predecessors in 1995.
Recent years have seen a huge increase in the number and variety of engagements undertaken by the Royal Choral Society. These have included the chance to sing at the naming ceremony for Queen Mary II, favourites such as Classical Spectacular and open air concerts. Such ventures have not, however, been at the expense of the choir’s core repertoire, which include performances of the Verdi Requiem and Bruckner’s magnificent Mass in E minor. The Royal Choral Society has also performed with Andrea Bocelli who, incidentally, sang in Malta last season with the National Orchestra of Malta.
The Royal Choral Society is delighted to be performing in Malta with the National Orchestra, a fantastic opportunity for the choir to perform for the first time Elgar’s Music Makers (with the participation of mezzo-soprano Wendy Dawn Thompson) and Vaughan Williams’s Toward the Unknown Region. Both pieces are of particular significance in that this year marks the 150th birth anniversary of Edward Elgar whereas next year is the 50th anniversary from the demise of Ralph Vaughan Williams. By pure coincidence, poet and author Ursula Vaughan Williams, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Maltese-born wife, passed away a few days ago in London aged 96.
This concert is being sponsored by Atlas Insurance, Melita Digital and De La Rue. Tickets at Lm10 (€23.29), Lm12 (€27.95), LM16* (€37.27) and Lm20* (€46.58) (*inclusive of reception after concert) are available on-line from www.MaltaTicket.com and from the following outlets Exotique, Agenda, BookEnds, and NewsKiosk.