41st BELGRADE MUSIC FESTIVAL

On 13 October 2009 Cantus Ensemble gave a guest performance at the 41st Belgrade Music Festival, better known as BEMUS. Because of this year's recession the festival - the oldest Serbian classical music festival - lasted from the 3rd to the 17th of October, offering 9 programs and exhibiting outstanding performances by ensembles such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Soloists and the STOMP Percussion Group. Cantus Ensemble was the only participating ensemble whose program was dedicated entirely to New Music, both Croatian and international.

The program consisted of three Croatian music pieces - Melusine, by Silvio Foretić, Un jardin sous la pluie avec un compositeur sans parapluie, by Berislav Šipuš and dolce furioso, by Dubravko Detoni; and two New Music classics - Kammermusik No. 1, Op. 24, by Paul Hindemith and Octandre, by Edgard Varèse. The Ensemble also performed the composition Two Apparitions under an Aspen by the young Serbian composer Draško Adžić.

A wide audience listened to the concert held at Kolarac Hall - the„main"concert hall in Belgrade and home to the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, with a seating capacity of approximately 800. Both the audience and the critics recognized the extraordinary importance of the Ensemble's intriguing and demanding program and its remarkable performing, technical and interpretative skills.