The town of Dubrovnik, found at the southernmost tip of Croatia on the Adriatic coast, is aglow with the music of summer festivals. From July ten to Aug. Twenty-five, the town hosted 5 weeks of music, theater and dance at its 62nd yearly Dubrovnik Summer Holiday.
The Festival Julian Rachlin & Buddies, now in its 11th year, has presented chamber music concerts from late Aug and will continue thru early Sep. It was set up by violinist Julian Rachlin, who selected the city as a perfect spot to supply creative and colourful projects with musicians of global repute.
Damaged in a war in the early 1990s, the Old Town section of Dubrovnik has been absolutely and faithfully reconstructed to its fairytale persona of prior centuries. Many Renaissance-era buildings are utilised as locales for musical performances. For the Festival Rachlin & Chums, the 15th century Rector’s Palace is the primary location for this year’s thirteen concerts, beginning with Zubin Mehta conducting the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. As well as performing standard classical stock, Rachlin commissions new works from composers. In the first three days of Sep, 3 new works by French-Swiss composer Richard Dubugnon were highlighted, every one painting an entirely different and unique view of the cosmos.
Eloquent chamber music
On Sept. One the programme included two examples of Russian romantic collection : Anton Arensky’s Quartet No. Two for violin, viola and two cellos ; Alexander Glazounov’s “Elegy” for viola and piano ; and Stravinsky’s 20th-century “Divertimento” for violin and piano. The centerpiece of the programme, though, was the world premiere of Dubugnon’s “Violiana,” written for Rachlin and pianist Itamar Golan. The piece saw Rachlin switching backwards and forwards from violin to viola with split-second timing for 3 movements of virtuoso playing. Exhibiting many moods and colours, most particularly the lovely muted impressionism of the slower second movement, this piece is memorable for its electrified energy level throughout and was amplified by the kinetic performance by Rachlin and Golan. Dubugnon also dug satisfyingly deep into the velvety, varnished colour of the viola, exploring its capacity for drama more than most do.
Sept. 2’s programme was devoted to the victims of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. One of Japan’s respected violin teachers, Tsugio Tokunaga, was a featured musician, as was his 18-year-old prizewinning student, Fumiaki Miura. Anchored to the evening’s theme was another commission from Dubugnon : “Variations on a Japanese Folk Tune” for two violins and piano. In it, the composer took “Red Dragonflies” by Aka Tombo and made a glistening, beautiful seven-part theme with variations. It was performed by Tokunaga and Rachlin, with Sophie Rachlin ( Julian’s ma ) on the piano. While the prior night’s composition used a less tonal and more rhythmically focused language, this evening’s work was intensely tonal and unabashedly emotional, made so especially because it was preceded by an original poem by Golan that used the illusory symbol of a young girl’s doll to memorialize the Fukushima catastrophe.
Sept. Three was titled “Concert in White,” to which everyone was requested to wear white clothing ; effectively, the crowd became a fun fashion show without the runway. The programme consisted of 3 highly emotional compositions whose personalities appeared to reflect the steam-laden hot weather. Dubugnon’s “Three Pieces for Violin and Piano” ( wonderfully played by Boris Brovstyn and Golan ) is destined to become a hot item inside violin inventory. It’s an stunningly tender duet, as if the piano and violin were in a lovers ‘ embrace. The 3 sections rambled from hallucinatory dreams to a moonlit reverie, then a delightful homage to the music of Maurice Ravel. A wispy glissando to the last, unearthly note was the final, evanescent breath of this wonderful masterpiece.
The next two pieces, Brahms ‘ Piano Quartet in C minor and Arnold Schoenberg’s string sextet “Transfigured Night” continued to increase the emotional temperature of the evening. The latter’s deep thought portrait of a spirit in the process of metamorphosis from deathly gloom to a radiant, heavenly resolution took everyone’s breath away. Transfigured Night” was Schoenberg’s first major work, drafted in 1899, and precedes the utilisation of the 12-tone language that defined his subsequent inheritance. Its troublesome, complicated score was electrified by a poem of the same name and is one of the pinnacle compositions for string chamber musicians. The performance by violinists Brovstyn and Sean Avram Chippie, violists Rachlin and David Aaron Chippie and cellists Torleif Theden and Boris Andrianov was an ecstatic experience of surging strength.
Another breathtaking aspect to this concert was the last-minute substitution of one or two violinists ( who learned their tricky parts in 48 hours ) wanted to replace the indisposed Janine Jansen. The heroes were Boris Brovstyn, Sean Avram Carpenter and the 18-year-old Miura. When I asked the teen how he felt playing with such luminaries as Rachlin, Maisky and Golan, he said, “When I sat across from the amazing Maisky playing his massive solos, I felt just like a little mouse!” Thanks to Rachlin’s organizational generosity, developing artists like Miura have the advantage and valuable experience of sharing the stage with their mentors. Sometime, Miura will be the older lion across from a young mouse.
From baroque to balalaika
The shocking Baroque church of St. Ignatius was the setting for a Sunday morning concert of works by Vivaldi and Bach. Later that day, Russian balalaika expert Alexey Arkhipovsky entertained with his mixing of styles from folks to funk, fugue to flamenco, making the silver coloured sound of only 3 strings look like a symphony. He is the modern-day Paganini of the balalaika, but with a Pat Metheny approach. The festival will continue with equal quantities of chamber music and lighter-weight fare thru to Sept. Eight as reported tagza.com.