State Philharmonic Orchestra of Rhineland-Palatinate under their new chief conductor, Michael Francis, start their visit to Malta with the great symphonic sweep and dynamic energy of Brahms’s First Piano Concerto. They are joined by revered Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, whose authority in the Austro-German repertoire stems from a career that spans sixty years and rests on the intellectual depth and musical freedom of his interpretations. The concert’s second half explores music by the Czech composer Antonin Dvorák, whose career took off thanks to the support and encouragement he received from Brahms. His rousing Slavonic Dances, originally written for piano and subsequently orchestrated by the composer, were issued by Brahms’s publishers, received rave reviews and established Dvorák’s international reputation overnight.