24th Annual Slovenian Music Days: opera, symposiums, concerts, workshops

The 24th annual edition of the Slovenian Music Days kicked off on March 10 in the main hall of the Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor with a performance of Trieste-born Slovenian composer Viktor Parma’s fairy-tale opera Zlatorog. Jointly organised by Festival Ljubljana in co-operation with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the Slovenian Philharmonic and the Society of Slovenian Composers, the traditional festival of contemporary Slovenian music offers an opportunity for the public to sample lesser-known works by Slovenian composers as well as hear the premiere performances of pieces composed especially for the festival. The event was opened with a speech by the Minister of Culture Majda Širca Ravikar. The opera presentation also served as an introduction to a two-day international musicological symposium which took place in the Lev Hotel in Ljubljana March 11 and 12.

Since the theme of the musicological symposium was 'The Mediterranean - Source of Music and Longing of European Romanticism and Modernism', the primary focus was devoted to composers and performers from the coastal Primorska region and to Slovenian composers living in Italy. Twenty-two Slovenian and foreign musicologists from eighth countries took part in the lectures, while individual sessions were led by musicologists Peter Andraschke, Hartmut Krones, Helmut Loos and Andrej Misson. Participants at the symposium were also treated to an excursion along the Slovenian paths that figuratively run through Trieste led by the literary historian, critic and essayist Miran Košuta. The symposium closed that same day, March 13, with a concert by the Trieste mixed choir led by Aleksander Pertot in the Slovenian ‘Glasbena Matica’ music society in the Italian coastal city. Bogdan Kralj, director of the Trieste Glasbena Matica (which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year) gave a speech to the participants.

The symphonic concerts of the Slovenian Music Days featured music by Aldo Kumar and Pavle Merkù, as well as works from composers whose anniversaries are being celebrated this year: Risto Savin (150 years), Bogo Leskovic and Radovan Gobca (100 years), Lojze Lebic and Vinko Globokar (75 years), and Alojz Ajdic (70 years). The concert offerings of this year’s festival were enriched with two other performances: one featuring the choir of the Slovenian National Theatre Ljubljana Opera and Ballet, the Ljubljana Madrigalists chamber choir and the Slovenian Octet in a programme that included premieres of pieces selected from a competition sponsored by the Society of Slovene Composers, as well as one presenting singer-songwriter Jani Kovacic accompanied by the RTV Slovenia Big Band playing arrangements by jazz artist Igor Lunder. In addition to the five concerts offered by this year’s Slovenian Music Days there was also a new event: a music workshop for children led by composer Uroš Rojko.

A few days after the conclusion of the festival, a round-table discussion was held for the first time to stimulate public commentary on the event in an open forum. But the music days still aren’t finished: the final event, a concert celebrating the 75th birthday of composer Vinko Globokar and featuring the Slovenian premiere of his work Destinees Machinales will take place June 22 in Cankarjev dom as part of the summer-long Ljubljana Festival.