Matej Šarc, oboe
Ursula Aščić, harp

Programme:

Luciano Berio (1925-2003): Sequenza II for Harp

Matej Bonin (1986): Monologue for Oboe*

Heinz Holliger (1939): Mobile for Oboe

Ivo Petrić (1931): Conversations for Oboe and Harp*

Primož Ramovš (1921-1999): Between G and H for Oboe and Harp

Larisa Vrhunc (1967): … Calm Lastin Things … for Oboe and Harp*

* premiere performance

This musical evening features the sounds of the unusual combination of oboe and harp, played by an outstanding pair of musicians. Contemporary music occupies an important place in the artistic activity of the oboist Matej Šarc. A member of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the internationally renowned wind quintet Slowind for more than 20 years, he is also a teacher and an organiser of music festivals. Harpist Ursula Aščić graduated from the Ljubljana Academy of Music before going abroad to continue her training. She has since completed postgraduate courses in orchestral and solo playing at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, graduating with distinction. She has also trained in Lyon and worked with numerous orchestras.

The programme includes the premiere performances of three works by noted Slovene composers. First among them is Ivo Petrić, whose numerous important accolades were crowned this year by the Grand Prešeren Prize in recognition of his lifetime achievement. The 85-year-old composer has left a profound mark on musical life in Slovenia. In addition to a creative oeuvre consisting of more than 200 works for ensembles of many different kinds, he founded and led the Slavko Osterc Ensemble, served as the artistic director of Slovenska Filharmonija and was for many years the director of music publisher Edicije DSS. While Petrić has decided to compose for this occasion a new piece in which two instruments converse with each other, Matej Bonin has created a solo monologue for oboe. This 29-year-old composer is already garnering an enviable reputation both in Slovenia and internationally. His works have been performed at various prestigious festivals and he has already received a commission from one of the most prominent international ensembles dedicated to modern music, the Ensemble Modern. In 2015 Bonin’s symphonic debut Cancro won the International Rostrum of Composers in the under 30 category. Composer Larisa Vrhunc has also been the recipient of first prizes at several international composition competitions. She works in Ljubljana, where she also teaches music theory in the Musicology Department of the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts. This evening of predominantly Slovene contemporary music also includes the 1982 work Med G in H by the pioneer of the Slovene musical avant-garde Primož Ramovš and two solo works by non-Slovenes: an older composition, Mobile, written in 1962 by the celebrated oboist and composer Heinz Holliger, and the second of the famous Sequenze by Luciano Berio. 

Photos