Close your eyes, imagine a bright sunrise over the wheat fields and let the music play!
One of the most important Croatian artists of recent music history, Blagoje Bersa , studied in Trieste, Zadar, Zagreb and Vienna. He started his career in Vienna, as a choirmaster and consultant at the well-known publishing house Doblinger . In 1919, he returned to Zagreb, where he was employed as the first professor of composition and instrumentation at the then newly founded Academy of Music. In his class, he trained many later famous Croatian composers such as Boris Papandopulo, Milo Cipra, Božidar Kunc, Ivan Brkanović. Stylistically, Bersa's music can be defined as late romantic with a noticeable influence of impressionism, which we hear in Sunčani polje ,composed around 1919 in Vienna. Lyrical and impressionistic parts of the composition are interwoven with brass fanfare in a double lineup, one of which is often placed in the galleries or behind the scenes. It was with a great performance of Sunny Fields in the Vienna Musikverein that the Zagreb Philharmonic under the direction of the then chief conductor Vjekoslav Šutej won the hearts of the audience and earned thunderous applause.
Don Juan (or Don Giovanni in the famous opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) inspired many famous artists, not only musicians, but also painters, writers, sculptors... Among them is the composer Richard Strauss, who otherwise very often reached for literary templates for his symphonic poems and songs (Shakespeare, Cervantes and others). Stylistically, Strauss builds on the late romantic style of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner, especially in symphonic poems such as Don Juan . In this piece, the orchestra became an instrument of brilliant virtuosity and brilliance. Outstanding orchestration and demanding sections of solo instruments and tuttisection, are a real treasure for the listener. The piece begins just like that, with a bravura theme throughout the string section. Later, the theme is repeated several times, and the composition ends very calmly - like an extinguished candle.
Jean Sibelius received his musical education in his native Finland, and continued his composition and violin studies in Berlin and Vienna. After traveling to Europe and the USA, he and his family returned to their homeland, to the rural part of Finland, where they found peace. He found inspiration for composing in nature and Norse mythology. His musical expression is late romantic and modernist. Sibelius composed a total of seven symphonies. The first symphonyit was created in 1899, and it was premiered in the same year under the direction of the composer himself. However, the symphony was not preserved in that form because the author already revised it the following year. The new premiere was directed by Robert Kajanus in 1900 in Berlin, and it was this performance that brought the author worldwide fame and career. The famous violinist competition in Helsinki is named after Sibelius, and in Finland his birthday (December 8) is a national holiday - Music Day. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth, 2015 was declared the year of Sibelius. That year, the Zagreb Philharmonic together with Stefan Milenkovic performed his Violin Concerto in D minor in the packed Vatroslav Lisinski Hall. An unforgettable event!
