program - SVIZ

UVODNIKI / EDITORIALS
6
Implausibly, I persuaded people to travel all the way from Australia to attend
the first ten-day Festival Maribor in 2008. Initially, many asked me where
Maribor lay on the map. I showed them photos and identified the country
of Slovenia in Central Europe where they would find a glorious and unique
convergence of cultures and history, where east meets west and the south
begins to meld into the north.
I assured them that in Maribor, they would be entertained by people with
warm, poetic hearts (and that they would enjoy wonderful food and wine).
There would be concerts in castles, cathedrals and intimate theatres. I told
them about the collection of instrumentalists and singers we had chosen and
that there would be gypsies with seemingly magical powers of musical seduction.
I suggested that their normal lives would seem like far away galaxies.
Skeptical but nevertheless curious, some did make the effort and came to our
inaugural Festival Maribor.
After stepping out of the Maribor Cathedral
with the sound of Mozart’s
C-Minor Mass still ringing amongst
the church stones, we walked up to
the finishing concert where the gypsies
performed their hypnotic acts on
the audience; these guests elatedly
told me of their transformation and
committed to the next year’s Festival.
Next year has become this year and
I welcome you to our second Festival
Maribor, 2009.
Our first endeavour incorporated an
exploration of the new world colliding
with the old, viewed through the
prism of my own experiences as an
Australian musician steeped in the
traditions of Western classical music.
We laid some conventions for future
Festivals, acknowledging the success of certain program structures, these are
the basis for Festival Maribor: most of the concerts taking place in Union Hall;
the Morning Reflections in Kazina Theatre Hall and other, beautiful, intimate
proximate halls (for which Maribor is uniquely blessed); the exploration of
old music presented in new ways and the discovery of new music; and our
conclusion with sacred music (this year the St. John Passion featuring one
of the great Evangelists and aptly named British tenor, James Gilchrist) in
the cathedral.
It is a loose requirement that the musicians stay for as long as they can in
order to cross-pollinate their music with others.
In residence this year will be the Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra
also performing as the larger Festival Orchestra comprising members from