In the early twentieth century, finding an audience for new music was no easy task. The increasing marginalisation of contemporary compositions led to a growing awareness among musicians for the need of mutual support and solidarity. This led to the establishment of composers’ societies that shared the common aims of providing their members with the necessary creative support, defending and promoting their rights and interests, and disseminating information about the creative aspects of music. Founded in France in 1851, the Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM) became the model for organizations of this kind, which subsequently began appearing around the world. In this country too: the Society of Slovene Composers has been active since 1945 and its upcoming 80th anniversary, an important milestone that the Society will celebrate in 2025, was the cue and inspiration for the forthcoming 39th Slovenian Music Days.
The opening concert shines the spotlight on two composers of different generations, experiences and views: on the one hand, the first Slovene modernist and one of the leading Slovene composers of the pre-war modern movement, Slavko Osterc, who with characteristic focus, irony and a sense of the grotesque, coupled with great expressive power, defied traditional musical expectations; and on the other, Milko Lazar, a highly original composer with a distinctively individual musical language, underscored by rich and pronounced rhythms and a broad sonority.
Like Osterc’s oeuvre, notably diverse for its time, Lazar’s creativity extends into a wide variety of musical genres, with both composers drawn to the field of ballet, among others. The first evening will open with a concert performance of Osterc’s rarely performed ballet pantomime The Masque of the Red Death (1930), a dense modernist tale that resonates with the composer’s artistic maturity. The world of Slovene ballet has been particularly significantly enriched by Lazar, whose essentially dance-based music gains new dimensions with the addition of movement. The inspiration for his ballet composition A Man with a Knife (2018) came from the works of the painter Rihard Jakopič, which serve as a starting point for the dynamic action onstage.
The celebratory atmosphere of the opening concert will be further enhanced by the premiere performance of Lazar’s new work Ballet Imaginaire for accordion, lazaronator (a unique electro-acoustic instrument used here for the first time in an orchestral context) and orchestra. Conducted by Uroš Lajovic, one of the most prominent co-creators of Slovenia’s musical and cultural history, and accompanied by the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the new work will be performed by the composer himself and the remarkable accordionist Luka Juhart. Deeply committed to contemporary music while also devoted to the baroque, Juhart has been working closely with composers from Slovenia and abroad for a number of years, entering into profound creative dialogues with them.
