First performance of Stanko Horvat's

Along with all the other important works (Coral, Cage, Dedić, Schönberg) and suitable performances on the concert of Cantus Ensemble on 12 November from the second season of the cycle in the small Lisinski hall, the performance in the center of interest was surely the premiere of the cycle of songs "Silazak na vrh" written by Stanko Horvat, on the poetry by Luko Paljetak. It is the last piece written by a composer who passed away a year ago, whose OPUS with its distinctiveness marked croatian twentieth century music, as well as the new generations of composers from his pedagogical workshop on the Zagreb Music Academy, supplying them with skills and stimulation for finding ways of finding one's own expression. Stanko Horvat left his cycle of songs for soprano and piano finished in a piano version and until his early death managed to finish the instrumentation of the first three, of eight in total. Maximally restraining his affinities, his late student Berislav Šipuš, based on marks, instructions and, understandably, knowing Horvat's distinctive handwriting took up the work of arranging the instrumentation of the rest of the songs with a praiseworthy outcome in which a "cut" is not felt. Cantus ensemble expressed it maximally concentrated, with an exceptional contribution to the expressiveness of interpretation by a vocal soloist Martina Gojčeta-Silić. Horvat always expressed special interest in literature, if we mention only his opera "Metamorphosis", after Kafka's prose, or the cycle "Šum krila, šum vode", written on Vesna Parun's poetry. The very choice from the intimistic wreath of sonnets "Silazak na vrh"("Coming down to the top") by Luko Paljetak - Tu stih, Moj prah, Sve veći, Jest, u noći, Dugo nježno, Prsti na koži, Znadem da su, Sviramo - significantly indicates Horvat's awareness of it being the last piece he is writing. The cycle lacks Horvat's recognizable intensive great gesture, similar to fresco painting. Step by step, "coming down to the top", deeply understanding the text, the composer follows Paljetak's multiplying of syllables in the verse through density of composer's verse. Harmonious number of intimate writings, coexistance of verse and music makes a solid and reasonable dramaturgical whole. Undoubtably, its introvert intensity reaches the listeners. (www.hds.hr)