Music lovers in Malta will have a rare opportunity of hearing the Imperial Ensemble of Vienna at the Manoel Theatre on Tuesday.

The group of musicians will be joined by Maltese soprano Lydia Caruana and Austrian baritone Benno Schollum in a varied programme of orchestral works by Gluck, Haydn, Brahms and Schubert, operatic excerpts by Mozart and musical gems from the Viennese operetta by Lehar and Strauss.

Ms Caruana received international acclaim for a performance she gave in Washington and Toronto to mark Malta's Independence Day. She was accompanied by pianist Davinia Galea.

The Washington concert was held at the residence of Ambassador John Lowell as part of the prestigious Embassy Series, a leading cultural institution whose mission is to promote international understanding through music.

Founded in 1983, the Imperial Ensemble of Vienna has become an integral part of Viennese and international music life. Its musicians are all members or permanent substitutes of the Vienna State Orchestra/Wiener Philharmoniker. They are dedicated to a particular musical nuance and sound culture that has become renowned internationally as the famous "Golden Vienna Sound". Even when performing larger compositions, this ensemble is used to play without a conductor and have received great acclaim on many concert tours abroad.

The concert at the Manoel will open with the Overture to Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck and Orfeo's well known lament Che faro' senza Euridice in a special arrangement for the soprano voice of Ms Caruana. It will be followed by Haydn's supreme masterpiece, The Creation, that came to him when he was 65 years old: Mr Schollum will interpret Raphael's aria Rollend in schaumenden Wellen from part one of this oratorio and the Imperial Ensemble will play the overture to this monumental work.

Mozart's Don Giovanni owes a great part of its success to the almost unique blending of the irresistibly comic and the tragically serious, as much as to the speed of its dramatic and musical action and most of all to the quality of the music. The three excerpts which will be sung by Ms Caruana Mr Benno Schollum are Donna Anna's aria Non mi dir, Don Giovanni's first act aria Finch' han del vino and the two voices join in the duet La' ci darem la mano. The second part of the evening will be introduced by the Imperial Ensemble of Vienna with Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 6 in D while soprano and baritone join forces to sing a traditional song -Vergebliches Standchen (The Vain Suit).

Helmina von Chezy's romantic play Rosamunde, Furstin von Zypern, which was never published and is considered to be lost, provided Franz Schubert with the opportunity to compose the incidental music to the play. It has lucid scoring, with music that sounds like a gracefully dancing supplement to the "Unfinished" Symphony. The Imperial Ensemble has included the ballet music from this work for their Manoel concert.

Of Schubert's odd 600 songs, An die Musik (To Music) remains a great favourite and will also be heard on this occasion.

From the golden age of Viennese operetta, the ensemble will provide the accompaniment to Rosalinde's Csardas from Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus (The Bat) interpreted by Ms Caruana.

There is nothing to match the world wide impact of the Viennese flavour than Franz Lehar's most successful work, The Merry Widow. From the world's most frequently performed operetta, Ms Caruana and Ms Schollum will sing the Lippen schweigen duet.

The Imperial Ensemble of Vienna will round off the concert with Johann Strauss Sr's Seufzer - Galopp Polka schnell Op. 9. The event is being organised by Malta International Airport plc in conjunction with the Manoel Theatre with the support of The Ministry of Tourism & Culture, BAWAG Bank and Volksbank.

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