Monday, September 28th
St. Nicholas Church, 8:00 PM
Zagreb soloists
Sreten Krstić, violin and artistic leadership
Georg Friedrich Händel
Concerto grosso in G major, Op. 6 No. 1, HWV 319
A tempo giusto
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro
Allegro
Antonio Vivaldi
La Primavera (Spring) – Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269
Allegro
Largo e pianissimo sempre
Allegro pastorale
Antonio Vivaldi
L`Estate (Summer) – Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315
Allegro non molto
Adagio e piano – Presto e forte
Presto
Antonio Vivaldi
L`Autunno (Autumn) – Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8, RV 293
Allegro
Adagio molto
Allegro
Antonio Vivaldi
L`Inverno (Winter) – Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297
Allegro non molto
Largo
Allegro
Georg Friedrich Händel
Concerto grosso in D minor Op. 6 No. 6, HWV 324
Larghetto e affettuoso
A tempo giusto
Musette
Allegro
Allegro
The Zagreb Soloists were founded in 1953 under the auspices of Radio Zagreb, with the renowned cellist Antonio Janigro as their artistic director. For more than seven decades, under the artistic leadership of distinguished concertmasters including Dragutin Hrdjok, Tonko Ninić, Anđelko Krpan, Borivoj Martinić-Jerčić and Sreten Krstić, the ensemble has maintained an outstanding artistic standard, confirmed through performances at the world's most prestigious concert venues. Since 2025, the ensemble's permanent guest concertmaster has been Guy Braunstein, former concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. To date, the Zagreb Soloists have given nearly five thousand concerts on all continents, appearing in major international music centres and at renowned concert halls including the Musikverein (Vienna), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Royal Festival Hall (London), the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall (New York), the Sydney Opera House and Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires). They have also appeared at leading international festivals, including those in Salzburg, Prague, Edinburgh, Berlin, Bergen, Barcelona, Istanbul, Prades, Ossiach and Dubrovnik. Throughout their history, they have collaborated with many distinguished soloists, among them Henryk Szeryng, Alfred Brendel, Christian Ferras, Pierre Fournier, Leonard Rose, James Galway, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Aldo Ciccolini, Katia Ricciarelli, Lily Laskine, Zuzana Růžičková, Mario Brunello, Isabelle Moretti, Guy Touvron, Marc Coppey and Ray Chen. The Zagreb Soloists' repertoire ranges from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods to contemporary music, with particular emphasis on rediscovering earlier Croatian repertoire and promoting younger generations of Croatian composers. Their discography comprises more than seventy albums released by labels including Vanguard, EMI, ASV, Eurodisc, Melodiya, Hispavox, Pickwick and Croatia Records. The ensemble has received numerous Croatian and international awards and honours, including the Pablo Casals Medal, the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal, the Vladimir Nazor Award, the Milka Trnina Award, the Josip Štolcer Slavenski Award, the Ivan Lukačić and Jurica Murai Awards of the Varaždin Baroque Evenings, the City of Zagreb Award, several Porin Awards, including the Porin Lifetime Achievement Award (1994), as well as many other distinctions.
Sreten Krstić began playing the violin at the age of seven. During his studies, he won the highest prizes at national competitions and, at the Jeunesses Musicales International Competition in Belgrade, was awarded second prize in 1973 and, three years later, a second prize together with the special award for the best performance of a work by Johann Sebastian Bach. As concertmaster of the World Youth Orchestra, he performed in 1975 and 1977 with soloists Henryk Szeryng and Pierre Fournier, under the baton of Jean Martinon and Bernhard Klee. Since 1980, he has served as principal concertmaster of the Munich Philharmonic, where he has worked under the orchestra's chief conductors Sergiu Celibidache, James Levine, Christian Thielemann, Lorin Maazel and Valery Gergiev. As a soloist, he has performed under the direction of Sergiu Celibidache, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Hiroshi Wakasugi, Horst Stein, Václav Neumann and Dmitri Kitayenko, appearing with all the major orchestras of the former Yugoslavia as well as throughout Europe, Japan, the United States and the countries of the former Soviet Union. In 1985, he founded the Gasteig Trio München, followed by the Philharmonisches Streichsextett in 1996 and the chamber orchestra Philharmonische Solisten in 1999, of which he is the artistic director. Since 2011, he has also served as principal concertmaster and artistic director of the Zagreb Soloists. Krstić has recorded for all the major radio and television broadcasters of the former Yugoslavia, as well as for Bavarian Radio, West German Radio (WDR), the BBC, and Greek Radio in Thessaloniki. He has also made numerous recordings of solo and chamber music for labels including PGP, Thorofon and Arte Nova Classics. From 2007 to 2010, he served as artistic director of the Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS). He is also a regular member of the juries of international violin, conducting and composition competitions. In recent years, he has devoted increasing attention to teaching, giving violin masterclasses in Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Valencia and France.