Croatian music in Vienna

At the very beginning of 2013. I would like to look back and write a few words about a wonderful series of concerts during November 2012. in Vienna,Austria.

It is something I would have covered as a journalist with the greatest pleasure - had I stayed in that professional waters - alas, now I am simply reading about it from a distance via internet and still mulling over in my head.

I would not dwell here on historical/psychological background of our connections with Vienna - croatians were always fiercely independent and stubborn about not being austrian servants, however the fact is that aristocratic, legal and administrative centre were not in provinces but in Vienna and Budapest. And now, like a child who wants to prove himself to parents, we are re-visiting Vienna bringing music,culture and art of our young & independent country. Trough November 5 to December 6, croatians musicians were performing in different concert halls around Vienna during "Festival of Croatian Music" - apparently this is already 8th of these festivals, something I was not familiar with - and presenting our cultural heritage to audiences outside of national limits. 

It was truly important and serious affair - combination of national pride and a bit of show off that actually I find very sweet, since Croatia is small country with turbulent recent past full of negative news, so here we have handful of people fighting the windmills and focusing on something positive. Artists represented were hand-picked in order to show little bit of everything - classical musicians rubbed shoulders with jazzers, choirs with rock musicians, we even had a classical piece composed by current croatian president Ivo Josipović!  If only I could have been a fly on the wall on these concerts! Had I been on land instead of sailing my way around Mediterranean I would surely visit every single of these concerts and talk to musicians and what it meant to them to play in Vienna. 

Who played and what - for some reason I see that musicians leaned heavily on Mozart (probably expecting this would have been appreciated in Vienna?) but everybody had spiced up their repertoire with some national jewels. 

ALEKSANDRA ŠUKLAR played Boris Papandopulo. 

AMADEUS TRIO ZAGREB played Beethoven and Tchaikovsky but also our own Bruno Bjelinski. 

Soprano LIDIJA HORVAT DUNJKO sang Haydn, Mozart, Frescobaldi and Bizet but also added ancient 17 century croatian composer Vinko Jelić. 

Brass band “SIMPLY BRASS” went for Bach, Holborne and Haydn but added young croatian composer born in 1976.

GORAN JERKOVIĆ conducted a choir "IVAN FILIPOVIĆ" that performed Tavener, Tchaikovsky and sacred works next to our own composer Joško Ćaleta.

Flute-quartet „4SYRINX“ played Mozart,Grieg and Bizet along with croatian composer Mladen Tarbuk.

MATEO GRANIĆ and MATEJ MEŠTROVIĆ played Brahms, Bach,Mozart and Saint-Saëns along to Jakov Gotovac and Ljubomir Kuntarić (Meštrović also had his own piece).

LIDIJA DOKUZOVIĆ conducted choir „ČIPKICE“ that had brilliant repertoire of traditional songs from different corners of Balkans. 

BORNA ŠERCAR had his own Jazz trio performing pop songs in jazz settings.

SRÐAN BULAT (guitar) played Rodrigo and Albéniz along to our own Papandopulo and Frano Parać. Now this is interesting because many,many years ago when composer Frano Parać was still a young rocker, he led a "beat band" where main vocalist was Josipa Lisac. Today, after more than 40 years Parać is a classical composer whose works are being played in Vienna and Josipa herself was a guest on this festival, representing pop-rock side of croatian music. 

Presented as JOSIPA LISAC & BAND, my all-time favorite singer and her guys played selection of hits from her now legendary career and received excellent reviews in media - surely big portion of the audience must have been Yu-nostalgic, people who loved and worshipped Josipa decades ago when she was unique presence on national rock scene - however, apparently she did impress even the austrians, which does not surprise me as I think her talent knows no limits and she is a world-class singer who happened to be born in a small Croatia. 

Wish I was there!