Musical Evenings in St Donatus As Dedication To Great Composers and Musicians

The latest edition of Musical Evenings in S. Donatus brings the richest concert program that starts with the opening ceremony on Thursday, 6 July on the Forum.

The opening program consists of a concert that bears the name “Dedications”, taking into consideration that this year's festival pay tribute to Croatian composers and musicians. Namely, the entire festival will mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Dora Pejačević and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Blagoje Bersa.

But that is not all. This year's festival will also pay tribute to the singular co-citizens that have left us in the past years, such as Antun Dolički and Valter Dešpalj.

– A tribute will be paid to the great Croatian composers whose anniversaries we are celebrating – Dora Pejačević's 100th anniversary of death and Blagoje Bersa's 150th anniversary of birth. In the meantime, maestros Dolički and Dešpalj unfortunately passed away and we included that also in the opening program. I am very pleased that at the very opening we will hear maestro's song that Zoranić often performed very gladly named “Zadar grad”, which we have given to maestro Fačini to process with the symphony orchestra and with our solo soprano from Zadar, Marta Hut. At the concert, Branimir Pustički, Valter Dešpalj's student, will perform a wonderful work in his honor. At the same concert, we will hear “Sunčana polja” (Sunny Fields) by Blagoja Berse, maybe one of his best works that requires an exceptional performing corps of almost a hundred performers and Dora Pejačević's “Koncertantna fantazija u d-molu za klavir i orkestar” (Concert Fantasy in D minor for Piano and Orchestra) that will be performed by Mia Miljković Đuzel, our Zadar student that is already a professor at the Zagreb Academy and a great pianist. I am pleased that she has accepted to practice for this work – announced Jurica Šoša, art director of the festival. 

Besides being performed at the opening, the works of Blagoje Bersa will also be heard at several concerts during the Evenings.  

– We have a very large number of concerts in Zadar, and I am really glad that a mass of Zadar performers are appearing who can seriously participate in the festival, and we can already see this throughout the concert season, not in a casual way but really seriously, so at one concert we will have Tea Kulaš as the leader of her program with the organ. The Buturić brothers, both excellent musicians– Miho organ musician and his brother Ante at the clarinet, will both also have an excellent program. Dora Pejačević will be played at an already traditional concert performed by artists from Zadar, last year Bjelinski was on the program, before that Papandopulo, and this year I managed to get them together to make a concert for Dora Pejačević – Šoša presented the program.

Among others, the concerts of Antifonus, Zadar Chamber Orchestra, must be mentioned as well as the fact that there will be an opportunity within the Evenings to see the concert of the Zoranić Croatian Musical Association.

The Contemporary foreign music cycle is to continue with art director is Katarina Livljanić, and this year she isintroducing two themes, one theme that intertwines within two concerts and that is music of Dalmatia and Venice during the early baroque.  

As Melita Ivković, Zadar Concert Office director, announced, the premiere of “Dalmatinsko zrcalo” (Dalmatian Mirror) is to be repeated.  

– It is precisely through this program that every year we respect those important units that we have outlined, which is the cycle of early music, that is Croatian composers and their anniversaries, that is the program of the Zadar Chamber Orchestra with great soloists, where emphasis is to be put on the arrival of Roman Simović, a concert master from the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as Zadar artists and the best Croatian performers. The idea of the Croatian musical heritage and especially Zadar's musical heritage runs through all of this, such as reviving old scores or completely recreating new programs, as is the case with Dalmatian Mirror. This is a big pledge for the future, and with that the Musical Evenings in St. Donatus is ranked alongside the most valuable Croatian music festivals - Ivković pointed out.

Besides keeping with music, we will also remember Valter Dešpalj with the exhibition that will open on 22 July on the Zadar ramparts bearing the name “From Zadar to World Stages”, organized by Ana Vidić, a musicologist from Zadar who has been working at the Croatian Radio Television for many years.

Concerts tickets are already being sold even through the internet and the concert venues are the church of St. Donatus and St. Grisogone, and the cathedral of St. Anastasia with the possibility to subscribe for tickets. 

PROGRAMME