Zagreb - Day 4
My stay in Zagreb slowly starts to come to an end, but the fourth day of the internship has not been less inspiring than the others. This time I started rehearsal in the morning with a short warm up and then we worked on Lachner's Stabat Mater for double choir. A total discovery for myself! I hadn't heard about this composer before, but this Romantic work is so well written and full of great moments of expression. Thanks to my mentor's comments I could also experiment with new ways of shaping the sound of the choir and help with vowels definition, and to reflect about direct/indirect communication with the singers. This was my last session conducting the choir and I was so thankful to all the singers, conductors, and team for their kindness and openness during all these days. What a joy to has been to work with them!
In the afternoon I visited the music archive and editions departments of HRT and was introduced to the team. It was fantastic to meet them and learn more about important Croatian composers of choral music, as well as all the recordings that the choir has been doing for decades. It also made me think about how necessary it is for successful music policies to build and keep/fund stable professional choirs than can contribute to generate new choral heritage and to promote it at the highest level (e.g. through performances, recordings, commissions ,etc) worldwide.
Last but not least I had the privilege to attend in the evening not one but two fantastic concerts.
First one was by Antiphonus Ensemble, a contemporary vocal group made by some singers from HRT and their conductor. Their performance was just unbelievable and it was so great to see them perform in a completely different context. The piece Cruda Amarilli by Berislav Sipus really caught my attention and had a lot of beautiful moments of expression.
Second one was HRT Orchestra with Neue Vocalsolisten Sttutgart performing Berio's Sinfonia. It was such a privilege to listen to one of the most important works in the XXth century live with such great ensembles. By coincidence at the end of the event I also had the chance to personally meet the great American composer and musicologist George Lewis. Could anything cooler have happened today to finish the day? I don't think so.