Free tickets for the concert are available at Križanke Box Office.

Dušan Sodja, clarinet
Tatjana Kaučič, piano

Programme:
Uroš Krek: Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano
Janez Matičič: Canto rapsodico for clarinet and piano*
Lojze Lebič: Invocation (à Primož Ramovš) for Clarinet and Piano
***
Nenad Firšt: Diary for Clarinet and Piano*
Corrado Rojac: Indaco e rame for Clarinet and Piano**
Tadeja Vulc: Trio “Infinity” for Clarinet, Piano and … a fly

* dedicated to Claripiano Duo
** premiere performance

Now in its 58th season, the chamber music cycle Concert Atelier  is the oldest concert series organised by the Society of Slovene Composers and another essential nexus of contemporary musical creativity in Slovenia. Conceptually slightly different from sister event Night of Slovene Composers,  it offers a blend of brand-new Slovene works and contemporary classical music from Slovenia and other countries, with an emphasis on less well known and rarely heard compositions. The latest programme draws on the treasury of chamber works by some of the most important names in 20th century Slovenian music, balancing them with three premiere performances. The challenge that the Concert Atelier presents to performers season after season has this time been accepted by Dušan Sodja and Tatjana Kaučič, otherwise known as Claripiano Duo, ambassadors of contemporary Slovene music who are known for their musically exciting and sensitively intimate performances.
Over the course of their rich, 30-year career, the two musicians have woven precious ties with many Slovene musicians. These include a long friendship with Uroš Krek, a composer committed to classical perfection and distinguished by his personal and sincere musical expression, who has remained faithful to the aesthetic foundations of compositional poetics and technical mastery. We will hear his Sonatina  from 1984.
The duo also collaborate regularly with Lojze Lebič, a composer with a far-reaching international reputation whose distinctly personal musical language runs the gamut from violent impetuosity to meditative restraint. His 2003 composition Invocation is a kind of “music of memory” that pays homage to his fellow composer Primož Ramovš.
Duo Claripiano also inspired the atmospheric miniature Canto rapsodico  (2005) by Janez Matičič, a highly original composer torn between past and present whose musical language is distinguished by originality, curiosity, unpredictability, inner turmoil and childlike playfulness.
Nenad Firšt, a composer who has for decades succeeded in maintaining contact with audiences despite his use of modern techniques, thanks to the directness of his expression, composed the technically demanding new work Diary in 2000 at the request of the acclaimed duo.
The successful instrumental duo are still very much in favour with composers today. A new work has been written for them on this occasion by the Trieste-born Corrado Rojac, primarily known as a concert accordionist but also a composer well versed in contemporary syntax. The programme will also include a new arrangement of a work by Tadeja Vulc, a composer who is equally convincing whether writing vocal music or creating instrumental works. Her Trio for Alto Saxophone, Piano and …  (2008) will be performed here for the first time in an arrangement for clarinet and piano.

Before the start of the concert there will be a discussion with the artists and performers at 7.00 pm, which will be moderated by Nenad Firšt.