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.”
