The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra brings its 50th anniversary season to a close with a celebration of 19th century French music on Friday, June 22.

The concert, Berlioz le Fantastique, will be held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, and will feature an orchestra of 100 musicians under the direction of French conductor Raoul Lay.

As the name suggests, the concert will focus on the works of the French Romantic-era composer Hector Berlioz. However, it opens with Claude Debussy’s groundbreaking Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un Faune, inspired by a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé and considered to be a turning point in the history of music.

The MPO will then be joined by soprano Gillian Zammit for a performance of Berlioz’s song cycle Les Nuits d’Été, a musical setting of six poems by Théophile Gautier. The poems – and the work – deal with the progression of love, starting from its blossoming, to the anguish at its loss, and ending with the hope of its final, eternal, renewal.

The concert is brought to a close with one of Berlioz’s best-known compositions, his Symphonie Fantastique.

An early example of a programme symphony, it tells the story of an artist who poisons himself with opium whilst despairing over unrequited love, and is inspired by the composer’s own infatuation with an Irish actress, Harriet Smithson, who he had seen on stage but never spoken to, and to whom he had sent numerous letters which went unanswered. The work actually led to the two meeting and marrying: however, the marriage was an unhappy one, and they eventually separated.

Tickets to the concert may be purchased from www.showshappening.com, or from the MCC’s box office.

While the concert does mark the official closing of the MPO’s season, the orchestra will nevertheless be performing in a series of summer concerts – including Mediterranean Soul, a joint concert with the Malta Youth Orchestra, on June 30.