Slowind Festival 2008

This year’s Slowind Festival, the celebrated wind quintet’s 10th annual festival, takes place between October 8 and December 15 in Marjan Kozina Hall of Slovenian Philharmonic Hall in Ljubljana. The quintet comprises internationally recognised musicians Ales Kacjan (flute), Matej Sarc (oboe), Jurij Jenko (clarinet), Metod Tomac (horn) and Paolo Calligaris (bassoon). Over five thematic evenings, each of which presents a member of the quintet in a solo role, audiences can hear a plethora of music rarely performed in Slovenia. Preceding the first concert, which took place October 8, was a discussion with author Mateja Kralj, author of the book les, veter, kovina (Wood, Wind and Steel) and composer Nenad First, whose work Mirror of Dreams, commissioned by Slowind, was premiered on that concert.

Over the five concerts of the series, Slowind members perform works by Nenad Firšt, Luciano Berio, Vinko Globokar, Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, George Aperghis, Matyas Seiber, Harel Krasa, Maurizio Kagel, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Paul Hindemith and Elliott Carter. This year’s festival also offers premieres of two new Slovenian works, including Mirror of Dreams by Nenad Firšt and Sonnet About Death from the new cycle Vrtiljak cutecih kipov (The Carousel of Sensing Statues) by young composer Nana Forte. Both compositions were commissioned by the ensemble specifically for the festival. Serving to weave each concert together, one of the members of the quintet is presented as a soloist on each of the evenings to perform one of four of Berio’s Sequenzas over the course of the festival. The final concert features mezzo-soprano Barbara Jernejcic-Fürst joining members of the quintet and other guests for a performance of Schoenberg’s landmark work Pierrot Lunaire.

Further concerts in the series, all of which will be held in Slovenian Philharmonic Hall, take place Nov. 24 and Dec. 15.