DR MICHELLE CASTELLETTI
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
KULUR – DULUR
TRIQAT – XBIHAT
KYRIE ELEISON
IL-BANDA ĠEJJA
VIVA ID-DULURI
VIVA KRISTU RXOXT
PAVALJUNI
BANDALORI
KOTRA KULLIMKIEN
ARA L-VARA DIEĦLA
BOROM INĊENS FWIEĦAT
TABERNAKLU MŻEJJEN
ĊAPPĊPU - KANTAW
QUO VADIS? IL-ĦAJKU MA JAĦDIMX
DLAM
DULUR – KULUR
This glorious juxtaposition of the tradition and pageantry in our wonderful Mediterranean Island, with the poignancy and reflection of this capsule within the liturgical year. This inexplicable duality – the dichotomy of the Christian religion – wherein Christ’s triumphant magnificence is achieved through His Passion. The resplendence of everything around us on Easter and the darkness preceding this on Good Friday. The Three Palaces is always about contrast: of old and new, or the marriage of space and experience. This year, we have decided to give our followers a Spring edition – a weekend of celebration and reflection. As such, no other weekend would be more appropriate than that of the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, much-loved by all Maltese, and the celebration of Palm Sunday. This time of the year is a time when everyone comes together – be this through unwavering pride of their town or village decorating the streets, forming spectacular processions, and singing their hearts out in church, religious devotion, or a weekend for festivity. In these three days, I wanted to encapsulate this – firstly through the tenderness, tragedy, and pathos of the Pieta’, with a newly-commissioned dance which I asked to be choreographed to Pergolesi’s supplicant Stabat Mater; and next through the drama of the last minutes of Christ on the Cross, where I have had the privilege of curating a site-specific, interdisciplinary, immersive, and participatory performance at St John’s Co-Cathedral. Wrapped around this introspection is a feast of flag-throwers and trumpeters in the streets of our old and new capitals, Valletta and Mdina – a continuation of contrasts, of exuberance, of spectacle, of splendour, of thought.
11 - 29 January 2023
BE PART OF THE EXPERIENCE
THE THREE PALACES
Organised by Festivals Malta, The Three Palaces festival focuses on the premise that “our ordinary is actually extraordinary”. In Malta, we are surrounded by magnificent buildings that we pass by every day and take in our stride, perhaps barely noticing their beauty. We embrace the philosophy that everyone should have access to our Heritage, Art and Culture. Audiences experience intimate performances in the grandeur of some of Malta’s finest palaces and indulge in forms of artistic expression that reflect the identity of the nation and beyond. Emerging artists perform alongside the finest established artists in Malta and internationally, thus celebrating this wonderful cultural melting pot that is the Mediterranean.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Artistic Director
The 11th Edition of the Valletta Baroque Festival is underway and it is as eclectic as ever. After two agonizingly long years of postponements due to the pandemic we now have a splendiferous programme that had been in accumulation since 2019. Besides the time honoured baroque composers; Bach, Handel and the rest of the sacred band’s music played on baroque instruments we have transcriptions and paraphrases for piano, wind instruments, saxophones, organ and even a rock band. I wanted to highlight the enormous versatility of the baroque idiom and its mass appeal. Above all the festival’s strength lies in the wonderful baroque settings that one finds in Valletta and the Maltese archipelago; a precious legacy that each and every one of us Maltese treasure…
TICKETS
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Our Hospitality Partners & Sponsors
Pieta
Friday, 11 April 2025 | 8pm
Valletta Campus Theatre, Valletta
Inspired by sacred imagery, including echoes of the Pietà, the piece weaves together the deeply personal and the profoundly universal.
Briju
Saturday & Sunday, 12 & 13 April 2025 | 11am & 2pm
City Gate, Valletta & Mdina Gate, Mdina
Wrap yourself around in a feast of flag-throwers and trumpeters in the streets of our old and new capitals, Valletta and Mdina – a continuation of contrasts, of exuberance, of spectacle, of splendour, of thought.
PROGRAMME 2025
FOREWORDS
DR MICHELLE CASTELLETTI
The Three Palaces - Foreword
A key. It can open a secret draw. It can decipher a crypt. This year’s festival is celebrating one of the most-loved and most known instruments – the piano – but in all its various guises as a keyboard. From the playful and glistening sound of a toy piano to the glorious grandeur of the pipe organ; the poise and sparkle conjured up by the harpsichord to the nobility and majesty of the grand piano. The piano can accompany, and the piano can take centre stage.
I invite you all to join us as we indulge in the passion of the Argentine tango with accordion, strings and dancers, or the virtuosity of jazz giants where fingers fly off the keyboard; the beauty and intimacy of song, or the audacity of plucking the strings inside the piano; the bucket list tick of The 32 with Beethoven’s complete piano sonata cycle, or having a go at playing the piano with your feet in the streets! I am thrilled to present The Three Palaces Festival 2023 to you, and am looking forward to welcoming everyone to Malta’s most magnificent palaces, to unlock sound with a key… for a celebration of the keyboard.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
FRANS AGIUS
Welcome to this year’s edition of The Three Palaces Festival, which is now in its eleventh edition.
The festival is known for its use of Malta’s most beautiful palaces and churches. This year, the festival will be taking its audiences to the Gran Salon in the Archaeology Museum and St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Verdala Palace in Siġġiewi, as well as SanAnton Palace in Attard. All of these are historical backdrops that captivate our audiences for an excellent cultural and artistic experience.
This time, the festival has a versatile and all-encompassing programme by Dr Michelle Castelletti, the festival’s artistic director.This edition celebrates the versatile use of the keyboard through the piano, the organ, the accordion, and the harpsichord. Theperformances will explore different ways of how these instruments are played across different genres, namely classical music, jazz, and even pop.
Festivals Malta is proud to carry on the legacy of The Three Palaces Festival. Our artists and audiences can indeed look forward to a satisfying cultural experience, where our ordinary becomes indeed extraordinary.