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Croatian Music

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« Reply #75 on: August 10, 2013, 02:15:09 am »

Thank you, ttle, for the insights, commentary, and background information on Sulek and his music!
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« Reply #76 on: August 10, 2013, 06:50:53 am »

. . . I have just discovered this article about the british premieres of Sulek second symphony and Hartmann fourth. I don't know if political ideology is an obsession of the author or of the time :
 
http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/28th-october-1955/20/music

Many thanks to member Ulalume for drawing attention to this new Spectator Archive, of whose existence I had not until now been aware. What a marvellous resource!!!

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ttle
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« Reply #77 on: August 11, 2013, 06:59:58 pm »

Thank you, ttle, for the insights, commentary, and background information on Sulek and his music!
Thank you for being the only conductor I know who so actively promotes Sulek! :)
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ttle
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« Reply #78 on: August 11, 2013, 07:11:20 pm »

I have just discovered this article about the british premieres of Sulek second symphony and Hartmann fourth. I don't know if political ideology is an obsession of the author or of the time :
 
http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/28th-october-1955/20/music
This is doubly interesting, of course for mentioning a British performance of a Šulek symphony, but also for dismissing Hartmann's Fourth which is, by now, widely acknowledged as one of the best symphonies for strings from last century.

To me, Šulek's second symphony is undoubtedly a work of hope, but of a totally different kind from most celebratory post-war Soviet symphonies. I find Dešpalj's performance from a few years ago one of his most inspired. He does manage to convey the anguish in the highly chromatic second movement, the frenzy of the subsequent march (one of my friends found it to be sub-Shostakovich, probably the latter's 7th, but I fully disagree) and the almost unreal classicism of the conclusion, bar the final modal ambiguity. This, in retrospect, is one of Šulek's most excessive works, but it does hit its target, to me anyway (the same could be said of such different works as Atterberg's Sinfonia funebre or Panufnik's Sinfonia sacra).
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« Reply #79 on: August 11, 2013, 10:35:05 pm »

I would like to add my thanks to ttle for the Sulek organ concerto. I have collected organ concertos all my music-appreciating life and this one is one of the most beautiful and powerful I have heard. My ideal of most heavenly would be a big all-out late romantic or early 20th Century concerto for organ and piano that would give me the shivers all the way through, like the beginning of the last movement of St. Saens Symphony 3 where the organ comes in full, then the piano joins in and they dialogue for the briefest of ecstatic moments. Oh my, let me take a chill pill.   :)
The Sulek Concerto is indeed a work not to be missed and this is true for Sulek in general.

Jacques Hetu's(1938 – 2010) Organ Concerto was an overwhelming musical experiece for me.
He is one fabulous Canadian composer who is tragically unsung(as are most Canadians), but I think his
death was too recent for his music to be well known internationally,..or at least that is my hope.
IMHO His epic 5th symphony is among the finest ever penned
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_H%C3%A9tu
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jacques-htu-composer-whose-modernist-works-never-lost-sight-of-traditional-forms-1982672.html

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« Reply #80 on: September 01, 2013, 10:08:48 pm »

Yes indeed  ;D
It is a pleasure. Maybe an Art-Music forum lobby can convince Mr. Heymann that Sulek is not such an 'obscure' composer! 8) After all, more or less once a year, one or another of his symphonies is performed in concert by one of the main two Zagreb orchestras, some of his instrumental concertos every once in a while, and then there are the classical concertos, the sonatas, the quartets...
If you wonder why Sulek is neglected, look thru the thread of "Dream Concerts"..One would think Croatia is not even a country..
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« Reply #81 on: September 01, 2013, 10:59:03 pm »

Yes indeed  ;D
It is a pleasure. Maybe an Art-Music forum lobby can convince Mr. Heymann that Sulek is not such an 'obscure' composer! 8) After all, more or less once a year, one or another of his symphonies is performed in concert by one of the main two Zagreb orchestras, some of his instrumental concertos every once in a while, and then there are the classical concertos, the sonatas, the quartets...
If you wonder why Sulek is neglected, look thru the thread of "Dream Concerts"..One would think Croatia is not even a country..
Well, not all countries are mentioned by all contributors, but Croatia appears not once, but twice in my suggestions...  ???
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« Reply #82 on: September 02, 2013, 12:44:00 am »

Yes indeed  ;D
It is a pleasure. Maybe an Art-Music forum lobby can convince Mr. Heymann that Sulek is not such an 'obscure' composer! 8) After all, more or less once a year, one or another of his symphonies is performed in concert by one of the main two Zagreb orchestras, some of his instrumental concertos every once in a while, and then there are the classical concertos, the sonatas, the quartets...
If you wonder why Sulek is neglected, look thru the thread of "Dream Concerts"..One would think Croatia is not even a country..
Well, not all countries are mentioned by all contributors, but Croatia appears not once, but twice in my suggestions...  ???
Sorry - I missed it or spoke too soon..I just wonder if it would have been included without you.
Does anyone else think Bjelinski's 7th is a masterpiece, or is this just a personal preference??
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ttle
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« Reply #83 on: September 15, 2013, 02:07:54 pm »

As we all know here, Stjepan Šulek is the only Croatian composer by whom, every season, at least one symphony is performed in concert in Zagreb. 2013-2014 shall be no exception, with the Croatian Radio & Television Symphony Orchestra offering an all-Šulek programme on Thursday, April 27, 2014 at 7.30pm (CET), in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall.

The conductor shall be Pavle Dešpalj, once Šulek's student, a worthy composer himself and probably the foremost performer of Šulek's orchestral music since Milan Horvat's retirement. Arguably the Seventh is not the best among the eight symphonies, but it is still well worth hearing. The soloist shall be veteran pianist and pedagogue Vladimir Krpan.

Programme:
Epitaph for a forgotten illusion
Piano concerto No. 3
Symphony No. 7
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« Reply #84 on: September 15, 2013, 02:09:08 pm »

Does anyone else think Bjelinski's 7th is a masterpiece, or is this just a personal preference??
I liked it at first hearing, but oddly have not listened to it again for ages. Here it comes back on top of my list!
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« Reply #85 on: September 15, 2013, 02:41:32 pm »

It is indeed one of Bjelinski's most persuasive symphonies! Formally very clear, consistently inspired in its thematic invention. Thanks for pointing it out again :)
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« Reply #86 on: October 25, 2013, 11:54:53 pm »

Here is a chance, however tiny, however commercial, to raise some awareness...
http://www.my.deutschegrammophon.com/symphony-voting/#_=
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calyptorhynchus
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« Reply #87 on: January 18, 2014, 06:07:34 am »

I find it extraordinary that Šulek is so little recorded, you would have thought that his obvious influences from Mahler would have meant German record companies at least would be on it him.

I've just been listening to the his fifth (I think all his symphonies are impressive, but the fifth is extra impressive). I love the way he finds new sonorities to play with, often involving low instruments: tubas, bass clarinets &c. I believe in the fifth symphony he uses a bass oboe (Heckelphone), a rare instrument, but perhaps someone who as seen the score an comment.
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Corentin Boissier
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« Reply #88 on: March 07, 2015, 10:04:09 am »

The link of Blagoje Bersa's Dramatic Overture is dead :
Bersa, Blagoje (1873-1934)
Dramatska predigra (Op.25a) (1898)
Croatian Radio Symphony Orchestra,
Mladen Tarbuk

Could you please re-upload it ?...
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