The Sfumato Concert Cycle and MBZ

In program collaboration with the Croatian Radiotelevision, the Croatian Radiotelevision Choir led by the conductor Tomislav Fačini, also known as the director of the Antiphonus chamber vocal ensemble, will present a program comprising of anthological choral literature, as well as contemporary compositions, one of which is a first performance. The common thread of the concert, John Cage's Living Room Music, suggests that this is a conceptually elaborate program that will add to the acoustic space of Lauba a more familiar, warmer and intimate, even humorous note. The four movements of Cage’s piece, written in 1940, will be broken up to create a playful and somewhat interactive intermezzo between the choral pieces. This is, of course, a well-known piece in which the performers trade their classical instruments for common objects found in the living room of a typical home, and on this occasion the piece will be interpreted by four soloists listed in the program—three seasoned percussionists and the conductor! Whereas in two of the movements, objects act as percussions, one of the other movements focuses on speech, so a poem by the modernist and avant-garde author Gertrude Stein is analyzed and quoted.

In addition to Cage’s composition, the anthological portion of the program includes Ligeti’s choral composition Lux aeterna for 16 voices, woven from micropolyphonic material and clusters in a wide range of vocal registers, and a choral piece by Estonian composer Veljo Tormis, inspired by the ninth rune of the Finnish national epic poem Kalevala. The influence of Finnish folklore in this piece can be observed in the structure (and) the melody, as well as in the story that reflects its title—the story of the encounter between man and iron, nature and man-made objects, that is, is the story of the ancient ethics of nature and the consequences of man’s alienation from it in a developed world that is being criticized.

The concert will then feature the first performance of  Sanja Drakulić’s choral composition—who is no stranger to thinking about and setting to music the verses by Croatian authors—this time to the verses of Cricket by Vladimir Nazor. An author’s commentary that cuts to the heart of the broader social context and extremely rhythmic, staccato sections enliven this dithyramb full of poetic language.

Serbian composer Jug Marković has already been presented in the announcement of the Biennale project BALKAN AFFAIRS, and on this occasion his composition Five Traces, for mixed choir will be performed - a piece that won the last years' New Note composers' competition at the Samobor Music Autumn festival. Marković creates heterogeneous and hybrid pieces, unencumbered by strict formal guidelines and well-established meanings. After graduating from IRCAM's composition and computer music Cursus in Paris, he works in the field of acoustic, electroacoustic and even electronic music.

Finally, the Slovenian composer Uroš Rojko will present himself with a composition on the subject of World War I, created under the impetus of TENSO, the European network for professional chamber choirs, as part of its project dedicated to this subject. Rojko draws on the letters of a soldier watching the town of Bovec from the battlefield, engulfed in explosions and flames so that it looks like a “sea of fire”—as is the title of the composition.