76
Dubrovačke ljetne igre
Dubrovnik Summer Festival
10/7 - 25/8 2025
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Marko Genero, viola | Marija Grazio, piano

Performances
02. August / Friday / 21:30h
Rector's Palace Atrium
Marko Genero, viola | Marija Grazio, piano

Marko Genero, viola

Marija Grazio, piano

                                                                                             

Prominent soloists of a wide artistic range, violist Marko Genero and composer and pianist Marija Grazio, will perform on the festival stage as a violist-pianist duo from Dubrovnik. As a duo, Genero and Grazio together won the prestigious music critics' prize, the Darko Lukić Award. Part of their programme at the 75th Festival will be the premiere performance of the pianist's latest composition.

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PROGRAMME:

                                                                    

H.I.F. Biber: Passacaglia in C minor for Solo Viola

                                                            

Marija Grazio: Piano Sonata

                                                                                          

Marija Grazio: Masks, for viola and piano (PREMIERE)

Pulcinella

Morte di Columbina

Arlecchino

                                       
                                                                                    

Chloe Pfeiffer (Paris): Lunatango 

                                                                                    

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Gilad Hochman : Akeda (The Binding of Isaac) for Solo Viola

                                                                                      

Traditional Palestinian melody for viola and piano

                                                                                                                       

Boris Papandopulo:

Sonata for Viola and Piano

Tres vif

Improvizacija

Scherzo

Finale

                                                                                        

Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel, for Viola and Piano                                                              

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MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAMME:

Notes by Dina Puhovski

                                                                

Composer and violinist Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (Jindřich Ignác František Biber, Stráž pod Ralskem, 1644 – Salzburg, 1704) served at the court of Prince Karl, Bishop of Olomouc, in Kroměříž, before joining the Kapelle at the court of Prince-Archbishop Gandolph in Salzburg, where he eventually advanced to the position of Kapellmeister. Impressed by his violin and compositional skills, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, raised him to nobility. He spent his final years on his estate composing sacred and stage music. Only one of his operas has been preserved, as well as motets, Masses and a Requiem. However, he is best known for his music for the violin, for which he originally wrote the Passacaglia – the final piece of his Rosary (or Mystery) Sonatas (Rosenkranzsonaten), in which the two-bar descending minor motif gets about sixty playful and imaginative variations in the bass line. In the original score, the Passacaglia was accompanied by an image of a guardian angel holding a child’s hand.

Marija Grazio was born in Dubrovnik into a family of musicians, where she took her first steps into music. She was formed as an artist through many forms of expression, literary, performative and visual, but has always been perceived primarily as a musician. She has composed for piano, wind instruments (bassoon, clarinet, flute and trumpet), cello, voice, choral and chamber music, and songs for children. She also composes for theatre. She wrote the score and lyrics for the musical The Magic Flute, which premiered at the Marin Držić Theatre in Dubrovnik in February 2022.

[for a more extensive biography, with details of Marija Grazio’s career as a performing musician, see the end of this text]

Marija Grazio’s new piece, Masks, which will be premiered this evening, was inspired by commedia dell'arte and shares one of its themes, the Mediterranean, with this year’s edition of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. Grazio wrote the following about the piece:

‘Pulcinella, Columbina and Arlecchino are typical characters in commedia dell'arte, a theatrical form that emerged in 16th-century Italy. These archetypal masks authentically reflect the Mediterranean. My idea of portraying masks was preceded by another, more experimental, with a touch of reflection on the spirit of a place (genius loci) and closer to dark, metaphysical themes. However, a gift I recently received from Naples, a mask of Pulcinella, illuminated the Mediterranean for me as a space of multi-layered tragicomedy.

The three-movement piece begins with the character of Pulcinella, that dual-natured buffoon and long-nosed hunchback that hides lovesick and incurable Mediterranean melancholy under his ludic robe. A maestoso opening dissolves his extroverted, intrusive character, but as the music progresses, it reveals his obscured parts in which Eros speaks, while singing through the viola. This is why I introduced a new melody for his song, and hints of Neapolitan songs in the score.

In the history of theatre, the commedia dell'arte character of Columbina represents the archetypal bridge between ancient Greek and romantic female characters, all those Ladies of the Camellias, Lauras, Violettas and Nastasya Filippovnas. She is tender and loving, but also pragmatic and self-interested, often depicted as a courtesan, whose voice is silenced by eternal departure, or by a new, invisible existence. In my musical story, Columbina dies and is given a funeral. The movement is a kind of marcia funebre, lamentation and a dignified walk towards her final resting place.

Arlecchino is the rawest character in commedia dell'arte, a skilled acrobat (which is depicted with short and long glissandi), a gullible ignoramus and a glutton. He got his demon-like face from Dante’s Inferno, which is why augmented fourth is used in the score, explicitly or covertly. I showed the playfulness of the character in the rhythm of the tarantella, and his robustness is underlined by frequent accumulations of seconds. He is persistent in his never changing play and relentless when it comes to mischief. Thus the pianist’s left hand plays one and the same rhythm until the very end, like percussion.’

Grazio wrote the following about her Piano Sonata:

‘I wrote the sonata some twenty years ago, while I was practicing/playing a piano sonata by Paul Hindemith, which inspired it. I was impressed by Hindemith’s ability to coldly analyze tone, sound, harmony and structure, and I was amazed how he managed to squeeze emotion out of his chemical-musical laboratory with this approach.

The first movement of the Sonata is most similar to his, with only hints of sentimentality. The music here is not intended to be pleasant or beautiful, but to inspire a different perspective of the musical experience through different forms of musical language. I made up for the lack of sentimentality, however, in the smiling and wistful atmosphere of the second movement, which, although not in triple metre, is a kind of mini-passacaglia.

In the third movement, written a few years after the first two, I play with the musical language of Nino Rota and Einojuhani Rautavaara. The movement is a kind of musical collage, because I do not allow motifs and themes to develop, they simply stick to each other in constant conflict. At the very end, the reminiscence of the first movement occurs, which is how I conclude the thought of returning to the initial position.’

In her piece Lunatango, the French composer, pianist and harpsichordist Chloë Pfeiffer (b. 1985) reached for the famous Beethoven’s Sonata. Marija Grazio wrote the following:

‘Violist Marko Genero is a passionate tango dancer, so it is not surprising that the French tango composer, pianist and leader of the prominent Orquesta Silbando, Chloë Pfeiffer, whose works are performed by the most renowned musicians such as Marta Argerich, composed three tangos for viola and piano at Marko’s suggestion, one of which is included in this evening’s programme.

Like the other two, this Tango originates from classical music, in this case from Beethoven’s piano sonata popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata (although Beethoven was not the one who named it so). The composer skilfully transforms its measures into tango rhythms, without losing the core ‘Beethovenian’ melody. The piece is at the same time a combination of Genero’s two greatest musical passions – classical music and tango – the essences of which he likes to pour from one frame to another, from one style to another.’

The Berlin-based Israeli composer Gilad Hochman (Herzliya, 1982) composed Akeda in 2006, and here is what he wrote about it:

‘Inspired by the biblical story of The Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22), where God demands Abraham to sacrifice his only son as a test of devotion, this composition captures the inner turmoil and profound emotional and moral conflicts that arise from this deeply rooted narrative in Jewish culture. Through this powerful tale, I aimed to create a work for the viola that oscillates between introspective contemplation and sudden outbursts, expressive melodies, and turbulent motion and climaxes. Beyond the specific story of Akeda (translator’s note: ‘akeda’ or ‘aqida’: binding of the victim), I sought to explore the universal theme of (self-) sacrifice for an ideal, whatever its form may be.

The composition begins with a simple ascending modal scale, presenting the main motifs that construct the piece in a single musical phrase. These motifs evolve through a constant development, leading to two climaxes and a central section characterized by dark, mumbled music and fragmented melodies. The growth of these melodic branches culminates in a final climax and the concluding section, the coda, is marked by stillness, silence, and occasional rests – a distant, blurred recollection of a complex emotional experience.

Akeda was commissioned as an obligatory piece for the Aviv Competitions (Israel) and supported by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund.’

Violist Marko Genero will improvise and tie the end of Hochman’s Akeda to a traditional Palestinian melody, in this case a love song (Ya zareef al tool – ‘You, handsome and tall, stop, so I can tell you...’). As Marija Grazio wrote, ‘precisely this conciliatory connection is an unbreakable and unchanging impulse, the beat of all those ethical and moral elevations that should part with pain and hatred in the space of tragedy.’

Boris Papandopulo (Honnef am Rhein, 1906 – Zagreb, 1991) grew up in an artistic family (his mother was the renowned opera singer Maja Strozzi). He earned his degree in composition from the Zagreb Academy of Music under Blagoje Bersa and studied conducting in Vienna under Dirk Fock, at the recommendation of Igor Stravinsky. He was also a pianist and performed throughout Europe. He wrote over 450 works, including operas, ballets, chamber music, piano pieces, sacred music and theatre and film scores, and was known for his inventiveness and humour. Musicologist Davor Merkaš, expert on Papandopulo’s work, points out that the ‘astonishing range of his work left a deep and ubiquitous mark not only on Croatian music, but also, I dare say, on the 20th century music in general.’

Papandopulo wrote the Sonata for viola and piano in 1956 and sent it to pianist Yuri Boukoff in Paris, but, according to musicologist Erika Krpan, there is no data about its performance abroad. Krpan wrote that ‘in a way, the piece brings back the subject of the twelve-tone technique, more precisely, the free use of styles and techniques, according to current choice and inspiration. (...)

The Sonata is interestingly conceived in its entirety. In the sequence of four movements different in character and leaning against each other – the composer inscribed a note in his list of works: in one movement – the author knowingly uses the capabilities of the viola, equally in a technical sense, for example, in the demanding first movement, and in the sense of character. The soft line of the viola draws a cantilena with the second movement, while the third Papandopulo-proper scherzo leans on the recognizable rhythmic motif in the piano section. The series in the fourth movement is developed in such a way that it completes the entirety of the piece.’

Arvo Pärt (b. Paide, 1935) studied composition at the Tallinn Conservatory and worked at Estonian Radio. In 1982, he emigrated from the Soviet Union to Vienna and then to West Berlin, where he settled permanently. He experimented with serialism and aleatoricism, and used the collage technique. Since the mid-1970s, he has been using a new style of his own – tintinnabuli: ‘I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. I work with very few elements and build with the most primitive materials – with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of the triad are like bells’ (Lat. tintinnabulum: a small bell).

Tintinnabulation (a word possibly coined by Edgar Allan Poe to describe ringing) is essentially treating simultaneous parts as one, with one moving around a central tone and the other sounding notes from the triad. This triad is usually the tonal centre of the piece, from which Pärt rarely departs.

This is what the Arvo Pärt Centre wrote about Spiegel im Spiegel:

Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror) is one of the best known and most performed pieces by Arvo Pärt and also one of his last compositions before his departure from Estonia. In 1978, the renowned Russian violinist Vladimir Spivakov commissioned a piece from Pärt for violin and piano, and already in December of the same year he premiered it at the Moscow Conservatory with the pianist Boris Bekhterev.

The musical material of Spiegel im Spiegel is presented with utmost clarity and strictness. It only consists of the melody of the solo instrument and the three-note piano accompaniment. The structure of the piece follows a strict formula, where no note is left to chance. The title directly reflects what is happening in the music: each ascending melodic line is followed by a descending mirror phrase. Initially, the melody consists of only two notes, with another note being added with each of the following phrases, thus creating a seemingly endless continuum. After each distancing, the melody returns to the central pitch of A, which, according to the composer, is like “returning home after being away”. The piano part accompanies the melody part at each step like a “guardian angel”, as the composer himself likes to say. In addition to the accompaniment, the piano part includes tintinnabuli notes – like little bells that alternately sound above and below the melodic line, following a fixed formula.

This seemingly simple composition poses a great challenge to a musician in bringing the music alive during the performance. The composer believes that first and foremost, the musician has to have something to say to himself or herself and to others: “Everything redundant must be left aside. Just like the composer has to reduce his ego when writing the music, the musician too must put his ego aside when performing the piece.” Purity and innocence are the qualities valued by the composer in the performance of his music.

Spiegel im Spiegel is one of the works of which the composer as well as the musicians have created numerous versions for various instrument combinations. It has often been used in ballet and dance performances, films and documentaries and even in DJ remixes.’

Marko Genero was born in Dubrovnik into a family of musicians. He started learning the violin at the Luka Sorkočević Music School in Dubrovnik with Žarko Grego, and switched to the viola at the Academy of Music in Zagreb, where he studied with Stefano Passaggio. At the age of 22, right after graduation, he first became an assistant, and then the youngest assistant professor at the Zagreb Academy of Music. At that time, he joined the renowned Zagreb Soloists and performed with them all over the world, often as a soloist. For family reasons, he left Croatia and settled permanently in Germany, where he continued his musical education.

He studied with the solo violist of the Berlin Philharmonic, Wilfried Strehle, and the French violist Serge Collot, and in 2001 received his Master’s degree from the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, where he studied under Vladimir Mendelssohn. He won numerous awards, including first prizes at the Nigun International Competition in Duisburg, the Jean Rogister International Competition in Belgium and in Essen (the Folkwang Prize). He was a soloist with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. Since 1999, he has served as the principal solo violist of the Bochum Symphony Orchestra.

He was invited to perform as a soloist with numerous renowned orchestras, including the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the WDR Orchester Köln, the Hessisches Rundfunkorchester Frankfurt and the Antwerp Royal Philharmonic. As a chamber musician, he regularly collaborates with Miha Pogačnik, Maria Graf, Irena Grafenauer, Steven Bishop-Kovacevich, Adrian Brendel, Alexander Sitkowetsky, Vladimir Mendelssohn, the Minguet Quartet, the Sebastian String Quartet, the Signum Quartet, and the Morgenstern Trio.

He has a special relationship with the Bermuda4 String Quartet, where he was a member for ten years. Alongside his career in Germany, he served as a professor of chamber music at the Zagreb Academy of Music from 2015 to 2018. He has been professor of viola at the renowned Robert Schumann Musikhochschule Düsseldorf from 2024. He recorded for Naxos, Laska Records and Croatia Records. Marko Genero plays a Nicolo Amati viola made in 1721.

Marija Grazio was taught the art of interpretation by numerous distinguished pedagogues, such as Konstantin Bogino, Marjan Mika, Vladimir Krpan and Dušan Trbojević, under whom she graduated. She completed her formal education with a postgraduate degree from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, under the renowned pianist Dubravka Tomšič. An accomplished member of various chamber ensembles, she received the prestigious Darko Lukić Award as a member of the duo with violist Marko Genero.

She has a wide repertoire ranging from Haydn, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saëns, Franck to Honegger, Poulenc, Shostakovich, and has appeared as a soloist with various orchestras and conductors such as Pavle Dešpalj, Anton Nanut, Alan Buribayev, Ivan Repušić, Nicholas Milton, Mladen Tarbuk, Ivo Dražinić, Frano Krasovac, Tomislav Fačini and others. In 2006 she received the Orlando Prize for Best Musical Performance at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival for her interpretation of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Croatian composer Frano Đurović wrote a piano concerto for her, which she premiered with the Cantus Ensemble and conductor Berislav Šipuš at the Osor Musical Evenings in 2010, and performed eleven years later at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, at the Rector’s Palace with Dubrovnik musicians and conductor Tomislav Fačini. She has composed for piano, wind instruments, cello, voice, choral and chamber music, and songs for children. She also composes for theatre.

She founded the Sorgo Music Workshop, which she has led with the pianist Aljoša Lečić since 2001, with the goal of promoting Dubrovnik’s musical heritage ranging from the pre-classical to modern period, with a special emphasis on contemporary music and its interpreters. Re-examining different approaches and forms of performance practice, the Sorgo Music Workshop has organized over ninety concerts and festivals and published several valuable collections of sheet music from Dubrovnik’s musical heritage and works by contemporary authors. Currently they are preparing a publication of a collection of art songs by Dubrovnik composers with a historical overview.

After four years, in 2021 she was re-elected as a member of the Cultural Council for Music and Musical Theatre of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia.

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Photo (c) Vedran Levi

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