On the 21st of June 2022, the Kyiv Virtuosi Orchestra, performing under the leadership of Grammy-nominated conductor Dmitry Yablonsky, will present a unique concert at the Robert Samut Hall in Floriana alongside the sensational Italian classical guitarist Carlotta Dalia. Organised by the European Foundation for Support of Culture and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the concert will present music by a variety of composers from across the spectrum of classical music, including Arcangelo Corelli, Arnold Schoenberg and Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor. The evening begins with Corelli’s Concerto grosso in G minor, popularly known as the Christmas Concerto due to the inscription ‘Fatto per la notte di Natale’ (‘Made for the night of Christmas’), which was assigned to it. Published posthumously in 1714, the concerto consists of six relatively short movements which are characterised by a joyous and tranquil mood, in line with its intention of evoking and celebrating the glory of God. Its concluding Pastorale is perhaps the most famous piece of Corelli’s works and brings the work to a close in a serene and peaceful tone meant to recall the shepherds in Bethlehem. Next comes contemporary composer Alexey Shor’s Guitar Concerto, an intriguing piece for an instrument which is not the first that comes to mind in the discussion about classical music. Written in the composer’s trademark melodious style which blends technical virtuosity with tonal beauty, the work is sure to delight audience’s, especially in the hands of a musician as skilled as Dalia. Finally, the Kyiv Virtuosi shall bring proceedings to a close with Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). Composed in just three weeks at the very end of the 19th century, the piece is inspired by  Richard Dehmel's poem of the same name, combined with Schoenberg’s own feelings upon first meeting Mathilde Zemlinsky, the woman he would go on to marry two years later. Now widely considered to be Schoenberg’s earliest important work, the piece courted controversy when it was first performed in 1902, both as a result of having been inspired by Dehmel's work, which was considered risqué in its own right, as well as due to the composer’s use of various original and inventive techniques which bordered on the avant-garde, and which resulted in the work’s rejection by the Vienna Music Society.