Krešimir Starčević performed for the fifth time at the Zagreb Piano Duo Festival, and this was his second performance in a piano duo with Tibor Naglić!
Festivals of piano duos are very rare, and this one in Zagreb gathers prominent ensembles every two years and enriches the cultural scene through interestingly conceived concerts.
At one of these at the Elly Bašić Music Scool in Zagreb, Tibor Naglić and Krešimir Starčević performed one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s masterpieces from his late creative phase – Sonata for piano four hands in C major, KV 521.
More about the Festival:
“The 19th Festival of Croatian Music in Vienna was opened on Tuesday evening (September 26, 2023) in the Baroque Hall of Vienna’s Old Town Hall, in the Bank Austria Lounge, with an impressive vocal-piano recital by the Croatian bass-baritone Krešimir Stražanac from Stuttgart and the Zagreb pianist Krešimir Starčević, entitled “Rachmaninov & Bersa 150 – Romances and Songs“.
It was an evening to remember. The beauty of the distinctive voice and the superb performance of Stražanec, full of emotions of this increasingly sought-after vocal star on the European and world music scene, along with Starčević’s imposing and confident piano collaboration, delighted the otherwise demanding Viennese music audience, who rewarded them with multiple stormy and long-lasting applause and calls to “encore”. The brilliantly coordinated musical duo Stražanac – Starčević thanked the audience with the song “Good Night” by Vladimir Ruždjak.”
Snježana Herek, Večernji list
Bass-baritone Krešimir Stražanac and pianist Krešimir Starčević continued to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Blagoje Bersa and Sergei Rachmaninov, performing their songs, romances and piano miniatures at two important festivals:
– SAMOBOR – 48th Samobor Festival – St. Anastasia’s Church (September 24, 2023)
– VIENNA – 19th Festival of Croatian Music in Vienna – Bank Austria Salon im Alten Rathaus (September 26, 2023)
It is interesting that at the concert in Samobor, the new model CFX Yamaha Concert Grand Piano was presented for the first time, on which Starčević played:
The entire Samobor concert was recorded by Croatian Radio, on whose First Program it was later broadcast.
The concert was attended by the legendary singer Dunja Vejzović and the distinguished pianist Đorđe Stanetti, with whom Stražanac and Starčević graduated from the Music Academies in Stuttgart and Zagreb.
© Samobor Festival
Trumpet player Vedran Kocelj and pianist Krešimir Starčević continue their long-standing collaboration and promotion of the works of Croatian composers.
They gave concerts in Nova Gradiška (September 12) and Drniš (September 18), where they performed as part of the 9th Music Evening Festival in the Church of St. Roko. The program included works by Croatian composers Igor Kuljerić, Blagoj Bersa, Srđan Dedić and Bruno Bjelinski.
In the second half of August 2023, bass baritone Krešimir Stražanac and pianist Krešimir Starčević held a concert tour in Brazil!
Here are the cities and halls in which they performed:
• SÃO PAULO – Fundação Maria Luisa e Oscar Americano (August 20)
• BRASILIA – Teatro Plinio Marcos (August 27)
• GOIÁS – Cultural Centre of the State University of Goiâs (August 29)
The program of these concerts included selected Songs by Blagoje Bersa as well as Romances by Sergei Rachmaninov, with which musicians marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of both composers. In addition, they also performed selected Songs by the great Croatian female composer Dora Pejačević, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her death, while Starčević also performed her piano compositions Violets and Rose, as well as Bersa’s composition At the Strand. This was probably the first opportunity for the audience in Brazil to hear these works of Croatian composers and the audience gave a standing ovation after each concert!
The concert in São Paulo was attended by the Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia in Brazil, Mr. Ranko Vilović, while the Minister Plenipotentiary, Mrs. Gordana Prelčec Sermek, was present at the concerts in Brasilia and Goiás. In honor of their arrival in Goiás, the Transamerica Collection Hotel Goiânia raised the Croatian flag!
After a successful concert at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, violinist Marco Graziani, cellist Latica Anić and Krešimir Starčević performed their program of piano trios dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Blagoje Bersa and Sergei Rachmaninov at the Osor Music Evenings!
This national Croatian festival has been held for 48 years in the beautiful Renaissance Osor Cathedral from the 15th century in the small town of Osor on the island of Cres and especially cherishes the performance of works by Croatian composers.
Krešimir Starčević made his debut at the most prestigious Croatian festival – the Dubrovnik Summer Festival!
On August 7, 2024, he performed with violinist Marco Graziani
and cellist Latica Anić in the Rector’s Palace Atrium in Dubrovnik.
With their carefully designed program, the musicians marked the 150th
anniversary of the birth of Blagoje Bersa and Sergei Rachmaninov,
performing their piano trios. Bersa’s Piano Trio in Classical Style, Op. 7,
is his youthful work and is very rarely performed in Croatia, just like the
monumental 50-minutes long Rachmaninov’s 2nd Trio élégiaque in D minor, Op.
9, one of the most demanding and beautiful pearls of chamber music. Between
them, Rachmaninov’s one-movement 1st Trio élégiaque in G minor,
well-known to the audience, was performed.
Here is what the critics wrote about this concert:
“With an excellent performance that even the summer rain did not manage to distract for a long time, the musicians showed that they were up to the challenge, showing a high level of musicianship, exact phrasing and an expressive poetic approach to each section, no matter how demanding its passages were. The beauty of the sounds of all three instruments was first demonstrated by the extraordinary Blagoje Bersa’s Piano Trio in the classical style, Op. 7. Judging by the satisfied applause of the festival audience, this composition truly deserves more attention. They dedicated the second half of the program to Rachmaninov, first with a performance of the composition First Trio élégiaque in G minor. whose sound colors were subtly and enchantingly nuanced by the musicians last night. Last night’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Trio élégiaque was deservedly rewarded by the audience’s standing ovation. Anić, Starčević and Graziani treated the crowd to a cheerful encore, Sergei Prokofiev’s March from his comic opera The Love for Three Oranges.”
Bass-baritone Krešimir Stražanac and Krešimir Starčević performed their first two joint concerts at the festivals in Petrinja and Zadar!
The selected songs of the Croatian composer Blagoje Bersa and the romances of the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov made up the program with which the musicians marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of these two composers. Starčević performed the piano works of Bersa (At the Strand) and Rachmaninov (Étude-tableaux in G minor, op. 33 no. 7 and Prelude in C-sharp minor, op. 3 no. 2) between performances with Stražanac.
The program was presented for the first time in the Church of St. Lovro in Petrinja, on July 6, 2023, as part of the 4th Ranko Filjak Piano Memorial, which is dedicated to the memory of this important Croatian pianist and pedagogue.
Three days later, on July 9, the musicians were guests in the Church of St. Krševan in Zadar, as part of a 63rd Music Evenings in St. Donatus Festival.
© Željko Karavida (Concert in Zadar)
This year, Krešimir Starčević will collaboration with the renowned
Croatian bass-baritone Krešimir Stražanac (strazanac.com). Their first
joint project is dedicated to two composers who were born in the 1873 and whose
150th birth anniversary is being celebrated this year – Sergei Rachmaninov
and the Croatian composer Blagoje Bersa. From their rich oeuvre of compositions
for voice and piano, the musicians interwoven songs and romances written
in German, Croatian, Italian and Russian, along with three piano pieces
played by Starčević. They will peroform some of Rachmaninov’s most popular and
performed romances, such as Night is mournful, In the silence of the secret
night, Do not sing, my beauty, to me, Vocalise, Dream, Spring Water and
others. Unlike Rachmaninov’s, Bersa’s songs are almost never performed,
therefore Stražanac’s and Starčević’s selection of his songs will be probably
the first contemporary performance of these beautiful compositions.
The first concert will take place in the Church of St. Lovro in PETRINJA,
on July 6, as part of the 4th Piano Memorial Ranko Filjak, and
the second in the Church of St. Krševan in ZADAR, on July 9, as
part of the 63rd Music Evenings in St. Donatus Festival.
A concert tour in Brazil will follow in August, during which
musicians will also perform few works of Croatian female composer Dora
Pejačević, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her death:
• SÃO PAULO (August 20)
• BRASILIA (August 27)
• GOIÁS (August 29)
Performances in September include:
• SAMOBOR (September 24) – Samobor Music Festival
• VIENNA (September 26) – Croatian Music Festival in Vienna
Project will continue in 2024 with concerts in:
• ZAGREB (January 14) – Croatian National Theatre
• POŽEGA (January 18) – Požega Music School
© Antonija Jurin Starčević
At the invitation of the Croatian Radio, Krešimir Starčević recorded the piano piece “Three Choral Preludes” by the Croatian composer Dubravko Detoni for the Radio Archive on June 15, 2023!
The work was recorded in the “Mozart” studio of the Croatian Radiotelevision, with the producer Pero Mihojević, and the recording engineer Emir Altić.
Here is what composer himself wrote about the work:
“The Three Chorale Preludes for piano by Dubravko Detoni were composed in 1963, when he was studying composition in the class of Stjepan Šulek at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. They were premiered by pianist Robert Andres on August 18, 1982, at the Hvar Summer Festival. They were arranged by Čedomil Dugan for the organ. The piece was recorded for the radio by the pianist Stjepan Radić and the author himself (partly on the piano) and Čedomil Dugan, on the organ, and was published on the Jugoton LPs “Detoni plays Detoni” (1980) and “Čedomil Dugan, organ” (1982). It is an ornamental (first prelude – Moderato) and decorative variation (second prelude – Adagio cantabile) on the theme of Bach’s famous chorale “Mach’s mit mir, Gott nach deiner Güt” and a virtuoso polyphonic fugue with the final chorale of the same theme in soprano and bass (third prelude – Allegro).”