Voltaire once said that “nothing is so well known as the Siege of Malta”... Alexey Shor's new symphonic cycle Images from the Great Siege brings to life the horrors and the glory of that watershed event. Paired with selections from the great Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian's Spartacus Suites, Shor's work receives its world premiere in this joint concert of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and Malta Philharmonic Orchestra led by maestro Sergey Smbatyan.

In May 1565, an Ottoman fleet of 40,000 men arrived off the shores of Malta. On a quest to conquer Europe, the Ottomans laid siege to the city, trying to rest it from the control of the Holy Roman Emporer Charles V. The Great Siege lasted until the Ottomans' defeat four months later, an event celebrated in Malta every September 8th as "Victory Day". It is this incredible historical drama that Alexey Shor captures in his symphonic cycle Images from the Great Siege, a monumental work for two orchestras that receives a grand world premiere here. Shor's work is followed by selections from Khachaturian's Spartacus Suites. Drawn from the ballet premiered in Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre in 1958, the work gave musical life to the exploits of the legendary leader of a slave uprising in Roman times.

Alexey Shor
"Images from the Great Siege" - Symphonic Cycle for Two Orchestras

Aram Khachaturian
Selections from "Spartacus" Suites Nos. 1 and 2

Armenian State Symphony Orchestra
Malta Philharmonic Orchestra
Sergey Smbatyan, conductor