IN THE EMBRACE OF ROOTS OR MARIBOR FOREVER

The programme of this year’s Festival Maribor is dedicated to Maribor, to the inhabitants of Maribor. It could be said that it reflects the musical legacy of Maribor and the entire region, Maribor in the past and Maribor today, coloured by folklore with a hint of multiculturalism. The musical selection addresses the city’s ethnic variety and dialectic, expressing its diverse roots, the universal language of nostalgia and longing that smoulders in all of us. You will hear the music of indigenous people, local inhabitants, immigrants and emigrants, in short, all of the people of Maribor. It is music mainly written by composers who were themselves emigrants, immigrants or locals, including a number of more or less well-known residents of Maribor, and even some forgotten ones.

The depth of Slavic melody, which was borrowed and even naturalised by many composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is intertwined with Romani exoticism, Austro-Hungarian brilliance, Alpine melody and the Balkan temperament. This is how we could describe Viennese music and a way of making music that weaves neighbouring characteristics into its own, giving it a new dimension, enriching it, not robbing it.

Why shouldn’t we do something similar? Strudel, Kaiserschmarrn, sausages, roasts, goulash… all of this belongsto us, even if it is not actually ours. Why not do the same with musical recipes?

Without the Czech element and the influence of all of our neighbours we would not have our music. It is precisely this intertwining and reciprocity that is the charm of our history and our music.

The opening concert, Slavic Umami, is a tribute to Slavic melody, to the sense of farewell and the tears that flow through most Slavic music.

This was an inspiration to many composers from the Central European region. Although Dvořak gave his Ninth Symphony the title “From the New World”, he did not actually write it in the popular Maribor restaurant Novi Svet (New World), but in America, where he was working temporarily. It is a genuine migrant worker hit in which the composer intertwines black, Indian and Slavic music, homesickness, and the new and the old in a teary-eyed dance, creating a symbiosis of the seemingly incompatible that is symptomatic of our region and music.

The pair of concerts Trans: Danubia – Gitana is a salutation from the neighbouring Pannonian region and a tribute to the Hungarian folk tradition in a highly distilled dose of Romani fire and ecstasy all in one. The Kelemen Quartet and the Sárközy Band are a full-blooded combination that will blow the roof off. The concert entitled Connections also touches upon our historical, neighbourhood and regional intertwining, full of subtle memories at the intersection of the subconsciousness and ecstasy, dance and song, the Balkans, Pannonia and Central Europe.

Thomas Gansch probably needs no further introduction. Together with a group of musical friends, with whom he collaborates in various formations (including his celebrated ensemble Mnozil Brass), he represents, in my opinion, the leading Austrian artistic export brand alongside the Vienna Philharmonic.

Tilen Artač will be Maribor’s Night Owl in a chamber “monomusical” (as we are calling it for now, while it is still in the process of creation), with which we will experience the world premiere of a new work by Leon Firšt.

The Sensitivity of the Balkans is a programme that is particularly dear to me. Although I did not grow up with this kind of music, it genuinely touches my soul and is among the most moving music I have ever encountered. It is music therapy that flows directly into the vein.

The concluding event of the festival, In the Name of Roots, reflects the times in which we live and is an encounter with the most authentic and powerful feelings that are only possible in the face of the greatest losses and injustices of humanity. It is a kind of requiem for justice and lost loved ones.

We will also play for children. As well as the traditional concert with Adriana Magdovski, who will tell Maribor stories with music for our youngest listeners, there will be a new performance of Peter and the Wolf featuring Tilen Artač and festival musicians.

Finally, I should mention that my own roots are also intertwined with Maribor. It was here that my parents met, and I myself attended the Maribor Music Secondary School and came into contact with outstanding chamber music making for the first time in this city. That was in the mid-1990s, when the festival Musical September, whose thirtieth anniversary we celebrate this year, was led by the late Mr Janko Šetinc.

I warmly invite you to join me in what is a very personal musical gathering, intended for everyone who likes music with high revs, a soft frequency and nostalgia.

Although there will certainly be something for connoisseurs, I think the programme will bring particular enjoyment to those who, like me, do not like the classics in their elitism and rigidity, but prefer the highest level of intensity, good music without boundaries and prejudices, soul-to-soul contact…

MATE BEKAVAC
Artistic director of the Maribor 2024 Festival