From the press

The successful performance of the Cantus Ansambl in Paris, Zdenka Weber
(Vjesnik, 11. - 12. June 2011) 

Thanks to the good cooperation established by the Croatian musicologist and diplomat Seadeta Midžić during her mandate at the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Paris with Christine Helfrich, director of the Department for cultural action and music at the Hôtel national des Invalides, several valuable concerts were held by Croatian musicians at that respectable and grand Parisian venue, the construction of which was embarked on by the „sun king“ Louis XIV at the end of 17th century to accommodate the army and war veterans.

This season, the turn has come for the most prominent Croatian ensemble specialized in contemporary music – Cantus Ansambl – to step up onto the Paris stage. The concert took place at the lavishly decorated Grande Salon on 7th June. For the current season, the project director Christine Helfrich, programmed music composed at the time of European division into the West and the so called Eastern Block, so this spring there are numerous concerts by a series of composers from the ex communist countries to be heard, as they perform works mostly dated after the World War II.(…)

The evening before the concert, the author of this text held a discourse on Croatian music of the 20th century at the Croatian Embassy in Paris for the members of the Alma Matris Croaticae Alumni association and its friends, as well as other interested audience members, which was an additional incentive for the reception of the introduced program. To announce the concert, Cristine Helfrich addressed the audience, emphasizing the exemplary cooperation with the Croatian Diplomatic Mission in Paris, as well as the importance Music Biennale Zagreb presented for the entire 20th century, since its founding and first edition in 1961 by the composer Milko Kelemen. Croatian ambassador, Mr. Mirko Galić was pleased to announce that at this occasion the Zagreb based musicians were about to present works of the great Croatian composers of the last century. Maestro Berislav Šipuš, the founder, artistic director and conductor of the Cantus Ansambl, also addressed the audience, shortly explaining the choice of individual compositions of the program. 

Playing the music of the 60s and 70s of the 20th century put a spotlight on the works of the Croatian avant-garde and composers of very modern orientation. At the very beginning of the concert two violinists, Ivan Novinc and Mislav Pavlin, performed Duo Amical by academician Stanko Horvat (1930-2006). Although this work was created in 1992, the responsibility for the successful years of MBZ as Horvat was the artistic director stated the necessity for including his music in this program. Duo Amicale, with its structure united in the two violins, clearly stated the direction into the amplified musical discourse, distinctive for the music of the modern times.

The Wind Trio by the convinced Croatian avant-garde composer Bogdan Gagić (1931) followed. In the fruitful interpretation by Branko Mihanović (oboe), Danijel Martinović (clarinet) and Ricardo Luque Perdomo (bassoon) the composition resounded in clear horizontal musical lines and harmonic liberties, assuming the structures  of atonal music.

The program was rounded up by the wind quintet Aubade by Milo Cipra (1906-1985), a work premiered at the MBZ in 1965. The work’s Mediterranean insolation was displayed through disciplinary gesture and technical sovereignty of Dani Bošnjak (flute), Bank Harkay (horn) and the three previously mentioned wind instrumentalists. Ivo Malec (1925), a Croatian - French composer well known to the Parisian audience, who resides in Paris since 1959, trusted the French interpreters and students of the Music Conservatory in Paris with his Miniatures pour Lewis Carroll (...). The rich facets of colour and rhythmic abstruse ties of the score with a hint of optimism of the musical atmosphere was very well presented, to the great pleasure of the present Ivo Malec, who announced the work, describing its conformation.

The only composer on the program from a musical heritage other than Croatian was the American - French Edgar Varèse (1883–1965) with his Octandre for octet of seven wind players and a double bass. This composition from 1923 symbolically points toward the great musical liberties, but also to the structural severity which marks the 20th century music. The complexity of the score was highly professionally heralded by the members of the Cantus Ansambl conducted by Maestro Šipuš, confident in rhythm and appropriate in expression.

As the concept dictated the ever increasing number of players on stage, the very end of the concert was reserved for Konstellationen, five movements of chamber music from 1959, yet another, by European standards, renowned Croatian composer, Milko Kelemen (1924). Kelemen, who lives in Stuttgart, Germany, very successfully managed to blend into the strive of the German avant-garde after the World War II, and his Konstallationen is a work of high technical perfection in every way, weather from a composer’s or from the interpreter’s point of view. Berislav Šipuš and his handpicked musicians predisposed for and skilful in the interpretation of the contemporary music, played Kelemen’s music with a true brio in their rhythmic, melodic and harmonic interpretation, underlining the importance of the presence of Croatian composers at a concert of European contemporary music.

And still, a sad cognition remains that only the two rebels Malec and Kelemen, who left the “confinement” and the “conservative” views of their home town Zagreb, managed to secure their place on the international stage. Such thoughts are, however, partly discredited by the fact that we have generations of very well educated musicians in Croatia. So there is hope that, under the refreshed conditions, as Croatia enters the EU, the younger generations of composers will have new opportunities opening up for them. It is important to further encourage the performances of Croatian soloists and ensembles on the world’s stages. Under the condition, of course, that they focus their attention on Croatian composers. Cantus Ansambl is a very good and an obviously successful example for this practice.