Sunday, September 29
Cathedral, 8.00 p.m
Concert on the Occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Choir Chorus Angelcus
Chorus angelicus
Capella Savaria
Ivana Lazar, soprano
Helena Lucić Šego, mezzosopran
Hugo Hymas, tenor
Berislav Puškarić, bass
Anđelko Igrec, condustor
Georg Friedrich Händel
Judas Maccabaeus
Oratorio in Three Parts, HWV 63
Act I
- Overture
- Chorus: Mourn, ye afflicted children
- Duet: From this dread scene (Israelitish Man, Israelitish Woman)
- Chorus: For Sion lamentation make
- Recitative: Not vain is all this storm of grief (Simon)
- Aria: Pious orgies, pious airs (Simon)
- Chorus: O Father, whose almighty pow'r
- Recitative: I feel the Deity within (Simon)
- Aria & Chorus: Arm, arm, ye brave (Simon)
- Recitative: 'Tis well, my friends! (Judas Maccabaeus)
- Aria & Chorus
a. Aria: Call forth thy pow'rs, my soul (Judas Maccabaeus)
b. Chorus: Lead on, lead on! - Recitative: To Heav'n's almighty King we kneel (Israelitish woman)
- Air & Duet
a. Air: O liberty, thou choicest treasure (Israelitish woman)
b. Duet: Come ever-smiling liberty (Israelitish Woman, Israelitish Man) - Recitative: My zealous father, now at rest (Judas Maccabaeus)
- Trio & Chorus: Disdainful of danger
(Priest, Judas Maccabaeus, Simon; Israelitish Woman) - Recitative: Haste ye, my brethren (Simon)
- Chorus: Hear us, O Lord
Act II
- Chorus: Fall'n is the foe
- Duet & Chorus: Sion now her head shall raise (Israelitish Woman and Man)
- Recitative: Oh, let eternal honours (Israelitish Woman)
- Aria: From mighty kings he took the spoil (Israelitish Woman)
- Chorus: Hail, Judea, happy land
- Recitative: Thanks to my brethren! (Judas Maccabaeus)
- Aria: How vain is man (Judas Maccabaeus)
- Recitative: Oh Judas, oh my brethren (Israelitish Messenger)
- Aria & Chorus: Ah! wretched, wretched Israel (Israelitish Woman)
- Recitative: My arms! (Judas Maccabaeus)
- Aria & Chorus: Sound an alarm! (Judas Maccabaeus)
- Recitative: Enough! To Heav'n we leave the rest! (Simon)
- Chorus: We never will bow down
Act III
- Aria: Father of Heav'n (Priest)
- Recitative: Oh grant it, Heav'n (Israelitish Woman)
- Aria: So shall the lute and harp awake (Israelitish Woman)
- Recitative: From Capharsalama on eagle wings I fly (Israelitish Messenger)
- Chorus: See, the conqu'ring hero comes!
- March
- Chorus: Sing unto God
- Recitative: Sweet flow the strains (Judas Maccabaeus)
- Aria: No unhallowed desire (Judas Maccabaeus)
- Duet: Oh lovely peace (Israelitish Woman, Israelitish Man)
- Aria & Chorus
a. Aria: Rejoice, oh Judah! (Simon)
b. Chorus: Hallelujah, Amen!
Chorus angelicus is a choir from Varaždin dedicated to performing musical works from both Croatian and international musical heritage. It was founded by Maestro Anđelko Igrec in 1999 and is composed of about forty dedicated singers of all ages. Chorus angelicus has demonstrated its greatest strength in large and demanding projects – performances of complete masterpieces of the world’s musical heritage such as G. F. Handel's Messiah, J. S. Bach's St. John Passion, J. Haydn's The Creation, and Claudio Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Maria Vergine. As a result of this, the choir won the Ivan Lukačić Award at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings in 2016 for their performance of J. S. Bach's St. John Passion. The choir performs at many concerts, mainly in Varaždin and its surroundings, but also in other parts of Croatia, and has undertaken many international tours (Austria, Hungary, Israel). Thanks to the projects of the Varaždin Baroque Evenings, the choir has collaborated with a number of Croatian and international ensembles specializing in baroque music performances: Le Parlement de Musique Strasbourg, Hofkapelle München, Musica Coeli Graz, Pratum Integrum from Moscow, Accademia Bizantina from Ravenna, Sonatores Panoniae from Hungary, as well as local ensembles like the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, the Croatian Baroque Ensemble, and Camerata Garestin. Although their repertoire most frequently includes works by baroque composers, Chorus angelicus also performs pieces from other periods – the Renaissance, Classicism, Romanticism, as well as works by contemporary composers (Rutter, Ramirez, Orff, Igrec). Some of their performances have been recorded (Mozart's Requiem, the musical Christmas in Varaždin Cathedral, Bach's St. John Passion, and Igrec's Songs of Worship and Praise).
Founded in 1981 in Szombathely, Capella Savaria is Hungary’s first chamber orchestra composed of historical instruments. From the very beginning, their aim has been to perform baroque and classical music authentically, relying on original documents from those periods. The ensemble performs chamber and orchestral music and participates in opera and oratorio performances. To date, they have released over 80 recordings under the labels Hungaroton, Centaur Records, Quintana, Harmonia Mundi, Dynamic, Naxos, and Dorian Records, five of which have been awarded the Hungarian Recording of the Year award. Nicholas McGegan, the conductor of Capella Savaria's opera and Passion projects and the orchestra’s principal guest conductor, has recorded 21 albums with them. Their recordings include rare works such as 18th-century Hungarian music and compositions by Jiří Družecký, Johan Roman, Alessandro Scarlatti, Benedetto Marcello, G. Ph. Telemann, Gregor Werner, Jacques-Christophe Naudot, J. Ph. Rameau, J. F. Fasch, and G. Muffat. The ensemble has performed in 22 European countries, as well as in North and South America and Israel. They regularly participate in Hungarian early music festivals (in Sopron, Fertőd, Budapest, and Zemplén) and have also performed at similar festivals in Bruges, Innsbruck, Regensburg, Göttingen, Halle, Utrecht, Zerbst, Warsaw, and Wrocław. They frequently appear on Hungarian radio and television and were awarded the prestigious Liszt Prize in 1991. The Canadian magazine Opus described Capella Savaria as “one of the best European ensembles.”
Ivana Lazar completed her vocal studies at the Music Academy in Zagreb. She graduated in the class of Mira Zidarić-Orešković and obtained her master's degree under Lidija Horvat-Dunjko. At the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, she attended Lied and oratorio lectures with Karlheinz Donnauer. From 2006 to 2008, she was a scholarship holder of the CEE-Musiktheater/Deutschebank in Vienna. She further honed her skills with Dunja Vejzović, Konrad Richter, and Olivera Miljaković. She is the recipient of the Marija Borčić Award for the best graduation concert by a student of the Music Academy, the Darko Lukić Diploma, the Milka Trnina Award from the Croatian Society of Music Artists, and a two-time winner of the Jurica Murai Award for the best interpretation at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings. For many years, she has been a prominent figure on the Croatian music scene as an interpreter of Baroque, Pre-Classical, and Classical music. She served as a soloist with the Croatian Baroque Ensemble and continues to collaborate as a soloist with the HRT Choir. She is a co-founder of the early music ensemble Camerata Garestin. Lazar has performed with many eminent orchestras both domestically and internationally, such as the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the HRT Symphony Orchestra, the HRT Choir, the Sarajevo Philharmonic, and the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra. Since 2006, she has been a regular guest soloist with Le Parlement de Musique from Strasbourg, with whom she conducted a major tour in France. She has also performed in Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ireland, Serbia, Egypt, Argentina, and Bolivia. Her performances have captivated audiences at major Croatian festivals such as the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Varaždin Baroque Evenings, Osor Musical Evenings, Split Summer Festival, Rijeka Summer Nights, and more. She is a leading soprano at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, where she received the Marijana Radev Award for the best opera achievement in the 2018/19 season for her role as the Queen of the Night in W. A. Mozart's The Magic Flute. For the same role, she also received the Croatian Theatre Award.
Helena Lucić Šego completed her vocal studies at the Academy of Music in Zagreb in the class of Lidija Horvat-Dunjko. While still a student, she made her operatic debut at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb in Puccini's one-act operas Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, as well as at the Croatian National Theatre in Osijek in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Since then, she has performed a number of roles in all Croatian opera houses, including Mozart's Cherubino and Marcellina, Bizet's Carmen, Rossini's Cenerentola and Rosina, Bellini's Adalgisa, Puccini's Suzuki, Strauss's Prince Orlofsky, Humperdinck's Hansel, and many others. She has further honed her skills with Olivera Miljaković, Elena Pankratova, Natalie Karl, Axelle Gall, Bernd Weikl, Silvia dalla Benetta, Paolo de Napoli, and Catherine Denley. A distinguished interpreter of Baroque music, she has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Laurence Cummings, Richard Egarr, Martin Gester, Hervé Niquet, and Paul Eswood. For many years, she collaborated with the Croatian Baroque Ensemble, performing many solo parts in major Baroque works. As a soloist, she has also performed with the Choir and Symphony Orchestra of Croatian Radiotelevision, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Rijeka Philharmonic, and the Cantus Ensemble for Contemporary Music, under the direction of conductors such as Nikša Bareza, Loris Voltolini, Ivo Lipanović, Uroš Lajovic, Antonello Allemandi, and Johannes Wildner. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Singing at the Academy of Music in Zagreb.
Hugo Hymas is highly esteemed and sought after as an interpreter of Renaissance and Baroque operatic oratorio and concert repertoire, allowing him to collaborate with the most prominent musicians and ensembles in this field. He regularly performs on domestic and international stages across Europe, the USA, Asia, and Australia with ensembles such as the Gabrieli Consort (Paul McCreesh), Arcangelo (Jonathan Cohen), Helsinki Baroque Orchestra (Aapo Häkkinen), Netherlands Chamber Choir (Peter Dijkstra), Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (Kristian Bezuidenhout), The English Concert (Harry Bicket), Dunedin Consort (John Butt), Croatian Baroque Ensemble (Lawrence Cummings), Münchener Motettenchor (Benedikt Haag), Monteverdi Choir (Sir John Eliot Gardiner), Les Arts Florissants (William Christie), Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Andreas Spering), Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Kent Nagano), and Les Nouveaux Caractères (Sébastien d’Hérin). He has performed operatic roles at venues including the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Winteroper in Potsdam, Opera in Lille, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Hymas enjoys giving solo recitals, is a former “young artist” of the Britten-Pears Foundation, and is currently part of the ‘Rising Stars’ program with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with which he has collaborated extensively. He graduated with honors in music from Durham University in 2014.
Croatian bass-baritone Krešimir Stražanac became a soloist at the Zurich Opera at the age of 23, performing under the baton of some of today's greatest conductors: Bernard Haitink, Franz Welser-Möst, Plácido Domingo, Vladimir Fedoseyev, and Peter Schneider. He made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 2017, at the Frankfurt Opera in 2018, and at the Gran Theatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 2021. The stylistic range of his operatic roles spans from Baroque to contemporary music. His oratorio and concert repertoire is equally extensive and stylistically diverse, and he performs across Europe and Asia with symphony orchestras such as the West German and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Royal Flemish Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, the Tokyo and Singapore Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Concentus Musicus Wien, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, under conductors like Herbert Blomstedt, Giovanni Antonini, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and Philippe Herreweghe. His recordings (around 20 releases so far) are published by labels such as Decca, Harmonia Mundi, BBC Opus Arte, BR Klassik, Oehms Classics, Coviello, Accent, and Edition Staatskapelle. Stražanac studied in Stuttgart with Dunja Vejzović and Cornelis Witthoefft and privately with Jane Thorner Mengedoht and Hanns-Friedrich Kunz.
Zsolt Kalló is the concertmaster, soloist, and artistic director of Capella Savaria. He studied violin under Eszter Perényi at the F. Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, graduating with honors in 1990. Between 1988 and 1989, he also studied under Sándor Végh in Salzburg. He obtained his Doctor of Liberal Arts (DLA) degree in 2010. As a concertmaster, he has played with several renowned chamber orchestras such as Sonora Hungarica, Aura Musicale, Concerto Armonico, and Orfeo Orchestra. He is also a noted soloist, recognized for his numerous recordings and broadcasts on radio and television. Kalló is known for founding the Trio Antiqua and the Authentic Quartet, and he was the first in Hungary to perform violin concertos by Tomasini, Kraus, and Michael Haydn. He teaches at the Conservatory of Music in Szombathely, the Varga Tibor Institute of Musical Arts, and the Széchenyi István University in Győr. He also lectures at various early music seminars. In recognition of his exceptional pedagogical work, he received the Halász Ferenc Award in 2008. In 2012, he was honored with the "For the Culture of Vas County" award, received the Liszt Award in 2014, became habilitated in 2018, and in 2022, he received another prestigious state award - the Distinguished Artist of Hungary.
Anđelko Igrec completed his studies in composition, church music, and orchestral conducting at the University of Music in Vienna. From 1999 to 2017, he served as the cathedral organist and choirmaster in Varaždin, and until 2022, he was the head of the Church Music Office of the Varaždin Diocese. As a conductor and composer, he collaborates with the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, Croatian Chamber Orchestra, HRT Choir and Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic, Croatian Baroque Ensemble, Wiener Dommusik, Savaria Symphony Orchestra, Capella Savaria, and many international ensembles. For many years, he was a lecturer at the Institute of Church Music in Zagreb and the Summer Organ School in Šibenik. At the City Theatre in Baden near Vienna, he conducted several productions such as the musicals Sunset Boulevard, Funny Girl, and Cabaret, the operetta Die Fledermaus, as well as numerous concerts in the fields of opera, operetta, and musical theatre. A special place in his work is held by the Varaždin choir Chorus angelicus, with which he, as founder and choirmaster, led the development from a youth choir, cathedral choir, to a performing body that enthusiastically tackles even the most demanding works of classical music literature, such as Monteverdi's Vespro, Handel's Dixit Dominus, Honegger's King David, and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. Among the awards he has received for his work are the Josip Štolcer Slavenski Composition Award, the Jurica Murai Award for an organ recital in 2002, and for the performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion in 2022 at the Varaždin Baroque Evenings, as well as grants from the Ministry of Culture for several compositions. Recordings featuring his music and interpretations have been awarded multiple times, including the Croatian discography award Porin.