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WIn half an hour graciously consented exclusively to me, a very accommodating Pietro De Maria, hailed as a poet at the keyboard enthused over the love of his life which has accompanied him throughout the world in the most famous theatres and with which he has been a welcome intruder into the intimacy of our homes.

As a pianist in great demand, Mr De Maria regularly performs publicly and participates actively in festivals throughout Europe, performing with the most prestigious orchestras conducted by today's leading conductors. Mr De Maria refers with great satisfaction to the DVD, released by Video Artists International, which features him in a live recital of famous Fantasias in Miami, and to a performance at the Teatro Municipale in Rio de Janiero in a series of concerts entitled The Pianists, in which each pianist gave a solo recital of 34 minutes and then performed two Piano Concertos with the orchestra.

But how did all this begin? Mr De Maria takes a look back into his formative years when he would listen at home enraptured to records of Rubinstein - what better master could have had a greater influence on a child prodigy whose dream was to be a pianist? Attending a live performance by Michelangeli when Mr De Maria was16 galvanised him so that there was no looking back. In 1990, at the age of 23 he was awarded first prize in yet another prestigious international piano competition: the Dino Ciani - Teatro La Scala in Milan, but this was the one that gently pushed him into establishing a repertoire both as a solo recitalist as well as a concerto soloist. It was not a matter of exposure, but of experience, so that when he was awarded the Géza Anda Prize in Zurich four years later, he was much better prepared to perform publicly both at home and away.

And what about preferences, when in the process of choosing a programme for a piano recital? His magic formula from his vast repertoire is precisely what he has chosen for his performance on Monday at the Palace Courtyard: a good dose of Chopin in the second half with an Italian flavour in the first in the form of six Scarlatti and one Clementi Sonata, and a dash of Gershwin to round it all up. Why the choice?

Chopin is Mr De Maria's favourite - he is in fact at the moment in the process of recording all Chopin's piano compositions up to Opus 64, a gargantuan task with which he has been entrusted by Decca. Post Opus 64 posthumous compositions will be recorded at a later date. Playing Scarlatti and Clementi is Mr De Maria's particular way of paying homage to his native Italy, and especially to his pedagogue, Maria Tipo, who tutored him at the Geneva Conservatory, where he obtained the Prémier Prix de Virtuosité with the highest honours in 1988.

MrDe Maria considers his sojourn in Geneva as fruitful in more ways than one - he was fortunate enough to have the great Russian pianist Nikita Magaloff as a "neighbour" so that both pianists could listen to one another: the senior with valuable advice because he was very generous in this respect to his students, and the junior keenly absorbing Magaloff's impressive repertoire cultivated by devoting an hour a day to "new" compositions, i.e. by composers in a revision exercise from studies from the past.

Monday's recital will not be Mr De Maria's first performance in Malta. He refers to the early 1990s, when he played at the Sala Isouard, Manoel Theatre in a recital held in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute and to last year's Malta Arts Festival, when he performed with cellist Enrico Dindo to great critical acclaim. He is thrilled to return as he loves Malta's people, its natural beauties and its rich culture. He confirms that his love and sensitivity for great works of art emanated from his fortune to have been born in Venice, which breathes an artistic heritage in all its quarters and moreover a particular air which reverberates in the sonority of his music.

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Two influences in particular experienced in his boyhood changed Ian Bostridge's career. From a brilliant student at Oxford and Cambridge, culminating in a post-doctoral fellowship in history at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1990 Dr Bostridge changed course and embarked on an international singing career, a decision triggered off by his having won the 1991 National Federation of Music Societies Award and support from the Young Concert Artists' Trust.

And what about those initial boyhood experiences which were to change his life? I was fortunate enough to have first-hand knowledge of them in a very cordial chat over the phone with Dr Bostridge himself, who was kind enough to fit me into a very tight schedule of engagements and commitments. Not surprisingly, his love for singing was nurtured as a result of his having formed part of the Westminster School Choir, and his fascination for German Lieder in particular owes its origins to an enlightened German teacher who cultivated his love for the German repertoire.

Dr Bostridge is also fascinated with opera. A remarkable repertoire in this field which has taken him across the UK and much further afield bears witness to this.

His international recital career includes the world's major concert halls and the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, Aldeburgh and Schubertiade festivals. His concert engagements include the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras and the Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera under Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Riccardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding, Donald Runnicles, James Levine and Antonio Pappano.

His impressive discography includes Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin with Graham Johnson (Gramophone Award 1996); Tom Rakewell with Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Grammy Award, 1999); and Belmonte with William Christie. Under his exclusive contract with EMI Classics, he has recorded Schubert Lieder and Schumann Lieder (Gramophone Award 1998), English song and Henze Lieder with Julius Drake, Britten's Our Hunting Fathers with Daniel Harding, Idomeneo with Sir Charles Mackerras, Janacek with Thomas Adès, Schubert with Leif Ove Andsnes and Mitsuko Uchida, Noel Coward with Jeffrey Tate, Britten Orchestral Cycles with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, Wolf with Antonio Pappano, Bach cantatas with Fabio Biondi, Britten's Canticles and Britten's The Turn of the Screw (Gramophone Award, 2003) and Handel Arias with Harry Bicket.

Though deeply steeped in his beloved Lieder, Dr Bostridge also nurtures a predilection for operatic roles, because he says he has a penchant for the theatrical. Mozart and Britten are among his favourites - one of the most rewarding experiences in his career, he reveals, was Britten's The Turn of the Screw with Sir Colin Davis.

Dr Bostridge warmly admitted that he is greatly looking forward to his first visit to Malta not least because of its magnificent history. We, on the other hand, are waiting with a great sense of expectancy to listen to him perform at the Palace Courtyard in Valletta, when he will be in his element performing Brahms and Schumann Lieder, accompanied by pianist Julius Drake with whom he has shared his recitals practically since the beginning of his career.

The programme envisaged for Malta is one of exquisite beauty: Johannes Brahms's Nine Lieder Opus 32 and his Four Heine Settings Opus 96, in the first half, and Schumann's divine Dichterliebe Opus 48.

Brahms is among the greatest composers of the German Lied, having written about 200 songs for solo voice and piano. We shall be given a glimpse of some of the most loved in the genre from both his earlier works composed in the lyrical, wistful style of Schubert, as well as his later ones where the song becomes a miniature drama, with a melodic line that often approaches declamation and a piano accompaniment that has dramatic force and individuality.

The second part of the recital will be dedicated to Schumann's chef d'oeuvre, among his song cycles Dichterliebe or A Poet's Love, Opus 48, which surpasses all other lyrics in the variety of mood, feeling and atmosphere. It is a superb cycle which will be performed by a true master in what should be an unforgettable musical experience.

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