Conductor Michael Laus will be directing the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert entitled Birds in Music, featuring works inspired by the most musical of creatures in the animal world – birds.

Organist Joanne Camilleri joins the orchestra for a performance of George Frideric Handel’s Organ Concerto in F major, nicknamed ‘The Cuckoo and the Nightingale’ for the bird song motifs present in its allegro movement.

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi drew on music from baroque era composers for his Gli Uccelli, but each movement in his suite also seeks to transcribe bird song as well as other bird actions into music.

Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 83 in G Minor earned the nickname La poule because of a jerky rhythm in the first movement, evoking the clucking of a hen.

The concert will be held on Saturday from 7.30 to 9pm at the Robert Samut Hall, Floriana. For tickets visit www.showshappening.com.