GRIEG, BEETHOVEN, PALANOVIĆ

Maestro Ville Matvejeff will conduct the Orchestra and Chorus of the CNT Ivan pl. Zajc, for which Dubravko Palanović, one of the most talented composers of the younger generation, has written a composition, while the mezzosoprano Ivana Srbljan will sing at its premiere performance!

Apart from this new work, famous works of two leading figures of classical music will be performed, namely, Edward Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Suite No.1 and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1.

The icon of Norwegian music and eminent representative of the Scandinavian nationalist school of music of Romantic style, composer, pianist and conductor Edvard Grieg (1843 – 1907), composed in 1876 stage music after the play of Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen from 1867. Peer Gynt strengthened Grieg’s position of the greatest Norwegian composer, while it also helped establish Ibsen’s five-act play in verses as a masterpiece on the international scene. Quests, virtues and flaws, torments and foolishness, common to all the mankind make part of Ibsen’s character Peer Gynt; they are musically transposed into a unique Grieg’s combination of Norwegian folklore and classical Romantic style in 26 movements, out of which the composer singled out two orchestral four-movement suites, Suite No.1, Op. 46 and Suite No. 2, Op. 55. They have remained Grieg’s most famous works, frequently performed and also used in popular culture.

Symphony No. 1 of the greatest symphony composer ever Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827), dedicated to Baron Gottfried van Swieten (Haydn’s, Mozart’s and Beethoven’s patron) was composed in the dawn of the new century, namely, from the year 1799 to the year 1800, in the composer’s early phase. Beethoven’s contemporaries said that his symphony had changed the conception of the genre, attaching to it attributes as masterpiece and originality, inventiveness and recognisability, melody richness and instrumentation that one can undoubtedly place next to the one of Mozart and Haydn, with whose compositions it also had a premiere performance in Vienna in 1800.

Dubravko Palanović (1977) is a Croatian composer and double bass musician. He has composed for prominent ensembles, philharmonics and orchestras. He used to be a member of the renowned Gustav Mahler youth orchestra under the leadership of Claudio Abbado. Palanović is the founder of the Acoustic Project ensemble, in which he composes, makes arrangements and plays together with distinguished Croatian musicians, mostly members of the Zagreb Philharmonic. His symphony, composed specifically for the Rijeka Opera, he bases upon the poetry of Ivan Goran Kovačić.

Programme:
E. Grieg:  Peer Gynt, Suite No.1, Op. 46
L. van Beethoven: Symphony No.1 in C major, Op. 21
D. Palanović: Symphony Clear Day (Jasan dan)