RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra

Soloists: Žiga Stanič, piano and Žiga Brank, violin

Conductor: Simon Krečič

Programme:

Lucijan Marija Škerjanc: Lyrical Overture

Lucijan Marija Škerjanc: Concert for Orchestra

Lucijan Marija Škerjanc: Concert for violin and orchestra *

Alenja Pivko Kneževič: Contact for Orchestra*

Žiga Stanič: Concert for piano and orchestra *

* premiere performance

The final concert places the spotlight on Lucijan Marija Škerjanc (1900–1973), a cosmopolitan figure who left an undeniable mark on musical life in Slovenia. He was a pianist, conductor, music writer, critic, long-serving teacher of composition at the Ljubljana Academy of Music (and, briefly, its rector) and for six years the director of the Slovenska Filharmonija, but above all he was a composer of remarkable technical ability. His musical language is of a decidedly lyrical nature and in stylistic terms shows an impressionistic use of colour. A brief experimental foray into the world of modern music and atonality, including radical compositional approaches such as twelve-tone technique, took place in the mid-1920s. This was also the period in which he wrote his Concerto for Orchestra (1926) and Violin Concerto (1927). Ninety years after its composition, the latter work receives its first performance on Slovenian soil, from the highly rated violinist Žiga Brank. The concert also includes the performance of the Piano Concerto written in 2015 by Žiga Stanič (1973), a composer, pianist, teacher and music producer of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. The concerto, in which the composer himself will appear as the soloist, is a single-movement work full of contrasting sections and sound effects. The piano part is highly virtuosic in places and predominantly percussive. Occasional unusual acceleration of the tempo reminds us that any melodic line, if played sufficiently quickly, can become a shifting sound cluster, a curtain of sound consisting of indistinguishable notes.

This evening of four concertos will be interpreted by Simon Krečič, a regular guest of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and an increasingly internationally recognised conductor.

Before the premiere performance of the Violin Concerto by L. M. Škerjanc, a conversation on composition with musicologist dr. Gregor Pompe will take place in Marjan Kozina Hall. Before two last compositions, a conversation with composer Alenja Pivka Kneževič and composer and pianist Žiga Stanič will also take place in Marjan Kozina Hall. Conversations will be moderated by Primož Trdan.

Free entrance with ticket for students and Festival Ljubljana Club members, 20 % discount for pensioners and groups of more than 30 people. You can pick your tickets at the Križanke Box office, upon presentation of the relevant document.