IN BOTH ROOTS OR MARIBOR FOREVER

The program of this year's Maribor Festival is dedicated to Maribor, Maribor men and women.

It could be said that the musical legacy of the city and the entire region, Maribor in the past and Maribor today, is colored by folklore and a multicultural touch. The musical selection addresses his ethnic variety and dialectic, expresses his diverse roots, the universal language of nostalgia and longing that smolders in all of us.

You will hear the music of natives, locals, immigrants and emigrants, in short, all the people of Maribor, and to a large extent from the pen of composers who were themselves emigrants, immigrants or locals. Among them will be quite a few more or less well-known or even forgotten residents of Maribor.

The depth of Slavic melos, which was borrowed and even naturalized by many composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, intertwined with Gypsy exotica, Austro-Hungarian brilliance, Alpine melodic and Balkan temperament. This is how we could describe Viennese music and the way of making music, which weaves the neighborhood into its own and thereby gives it a new dimension, enriches it, does not rob it.

Why not do something similar to me? Strudel, imperial roast, sausages, roasts, goulash, all of this is ours, even if it isn't; why not do the same with music recipes? Without the Czech element and influence, all neighborhoods would not have our music. It is this intertwining and reciprocity that is the charm of our history and our music.

Opening concert Slovanski umami is a tribute to the Slavic melos, the feeling of goodbyes and tears that flow through most Slavic music.

It was an inspiration to many composers from the Central European area. Dvořák did not write his Ninth Symphony in the famous Maribor restaurant Novi svet, although he titled it From the New World, but in America, where he was on temporary work. The real guest worker hit is the one with which he intertwines black, Indian and Slavic, homesickness, new and old in a teary-eyed dance. A symbiosis of the seemingly incompatible, as in many other places in our region and music.

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Concert Duo Package Trans: Danubia – Gitana is a neighborly Pannonian salute and a tribute to Hungarian folk lore in a highly distilled dose of gypsy fire and ecstasy on the mattress. Quartet Kelemen and Sarkozy Band they are a thoroughbred combination that literally breaks the gates.

Also at the concert named ties, we will touch on our historical, neighborhood and regional intertwining, full of subtle memories at the intersection of subconsciousness and ecstasy, dance and song, the Balkans, Pannonia and Central Europe.

by Thomas Gansch probably needs no further introduction. Together with a bunch of musical friends, with whom he works in various formations (incl which is his famous band Mnozil Brass), in my opinion, represents ob  The Vienna Philharmonic is the top Austrian artistic export brand.

Tilen Artač will be Maribor's Nonočnjak in a chamber "monomusical" (that's what we're calling it for now, when it is still in the process of being created), with which we will experience the world premiere of the new work Leon Firšt. The delicacy of the Balkans I personally especially like the program. Although I didn't grow up with this kind of music, it really touches the bottom of my soul and is one of the most moving pieces of music I've come across. Music therapy that flows directly into the blood. 

End of the festival In the name of roots is a mirror of the times we live in and an encounter with the most genuine and strong feelings, which are possible only in the face of the greatest losses and injustices of humanity. A sort of requiem for justice and lost loved ones.

We will also play for the children: there will be a traditional concert with Adriana Magdovski, who will be with music for the youngest told stories from Maribor, and a new performance of Peter and the Wolf s Tilno Artač and festival musicians.

Finally, let me mention that my roots are also intertwined with Maribor. My parents they met right here, and I myself attended the High School of Music here and also for the first time came into contact with top chamber music. It was the mid-nineties that when there is a festival Musical September, whose thirtieth anniversary is being celebrated this year, conducted by the late Mr Janko Šetinc.

I invite you to a very personal musical gathering, intended for everyone you love music with high revs, low frequency and nostalgia. There will surely be something for connoisseurs, but I think those of you who, like me, don't like classics in hers will enjoy it the most elitism and rigidity, but you prefer intensity of the highest level, good music without borders and prejudices, soul-to-soul contact...

 

MATE BEKAVAC
Artistic director of the Maribor 2024 Festival

BARBARA ŠVRLJUGA HERGOVICH

DEAR MUSIC LOVERS,

Thirty-one years ago, not yet sixteen-year-old Mate Bekavac stood on the concert stage for the first time in Kazinska dvorana in Maribor...

Barbara Švrljuga Hergovich