Quattro Mani: A Clown Called Petrouchka
Part of The Three Palaces Festival, organised by Festivals Malta
Performers:
Gabi Sultana – Piano
Joanne Camilleri – Piano
Four hands – two people – one piano. A more tightly knit musical conversation there surely cannot be. Pianists Gabi Sultana and Joanne Camilleri perform together in this dynamic programme, closing The Three Palaces Festival 2025 with a dazzling showcase of storytelling, virtuosity and colour.
Date: Sunday 2 November 2025
Time: 6pm
Venue: Concert Hall, Palazzo de La Salle, Valletta
This exhilarating concert features Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Suite) with its fairytale elegance, Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue, Kulenty’s fiery and rhythmically explosive VAN, and Stravinsky’s Trois mouvements de Pétrouchka, a work of extraordinary energy and theatrical imagination. Together, these four works create a vibrant journey through fantasy, jazz, and folklore – a fitting finale to this year’s festival.
Programme:
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Ma mère l’Oye [Mother Goose Suite]
I. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant (Pavane of Sleeping Beauty)
II. Petit Poucet (Tom Thumb)
III. Laideronette, Impératrice des Pagodes (Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas)
IV. Les entretiens de la Belle et de la bête (Conversations of Beauty and the Beast)
V. Le jardin féerique (The Fairy Garden)
George Gershwin (1898–1937)
Rhapsody in Blue
Hanna Kulenty (b. 1961)
VAN
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Trois mouvements de Pétrouchka [Three Movements from Petrushka]
I. Danse Russe (Russian Dance)
II. Chez Pétrouchka (Petrushka’s Room)
III. La semaine grasse (The Shrovetide Fair)
The evening begins in the world of childhood wonder. Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, completed in 1910 and dedicated to two young friends, Mimi and Jean Godebski, paints stories from fairy tales with colour and simplicity. Each movement shimmers with texture – from the gentle Pavane of Sleeping Beauty and the wandering curiosity of Tom Thumb, to the exotic pentatonic hues of Laideronette and the tender transformation of Beauty and the Beast. The suite concludes in an enchanted garden, glowing with the radiance of a painter’s final brushstrokes.
The mood shifts with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, an icon of 20th-century music that merges classical structure with jazz idioms. Premiered in 1924 with the composer himself as soloist, it became an instant success and a defining portrait of the American spirit – exuberant, restless, and irresistibly rhythmic.
Polish composer Hanna Kulenty’s VAN brings a contemporary energy to the programme, a kaleidoscopic explosion of sound and rhythm, commissioned by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for a royal state visit. Its shifting pulses and reflective silences create a hypnotic and modern landscape of sound.
The concert concludes with Stravinsky’s Trois mouvements de Pétrouchka, a transcription of his celebrated ballet about a puppet who comes to life. Stravinsky described Pétrouchka as “the immortal and unhappy hero of all the fairs in all countries.” Bursting with character, colour, and rhythmic vitality, it remains a cornerstone of 20th-century music and a thrilling climax to this four-hands recital.
Tickets: https://www.festivals.mt/what-s-on/quattro-mani%3A-a-clown-called-petrouchka
Duration: Approx. 60 minutes
Organised by: The Three Palaces Festival, Festivals Malta
