Saturday, September 29, 7 p.m
Varaždin Cathedral

In Memoriam Mo.Saša Britvić

Croatian Baroque Ensemble
Laura Vadjon, leadership

Chorus Angelicus Choir
Anđelko Igrec, choirmaster

Ensemble Koinonía
Johann Hausreither, choirmaster

Ivana Lazar, soprano
Monika Cerovčec, soprano
Sonja Runje, alt
Hugo Hymas, tenor
David Greco, baritone
Anđelko Igrec, conductor

 Programme:

MASTERPIECES OF BAROQUE MUSIC

Johann Sebastian Bach
Mass in B minor, BWV 232

Kyrie
Kyrie eleison, choir
Christe eleison, duet (sopranos I.&II.)
Kyrie eleison, choir

Gloria
Gloria in excelsis, choir
Et in terra pax, choir
Laudamus te, aria (soprano)
Gratias agimus tibi, choir
Domine Deus, duet (soprano & tenor)
Qui tollis peccata mundi, choir
Qui sedes ad dextram Patris, aria (alt/alto)
Quoniam tu solus sanctus, aria (bass)
Cum Sancto Spiritu, choir

Credo
Credo in unum Deum, choir
Patrem omnipotentem, choir
Et in unum Dominum, duet (soprano & alt)
Et incarnatus est, choir
Crucifixus, choir
Et resurrexit, choir
Et in Spiritum Sanctum, aria (bass)
Confiteor, choir
Et expecto, choir

Sanctus
Sanctus, choir

About the performer:

Croatian Baroque Ensemble is the most prominent Croatian ensemble specialized inhistorically authentic interpretations of instrumental and vocal-instrumental music from the baroque and similar periods. The ensemble was founded in 1999 and consists of esteemed musicians of a younger generation. Along with a continuous concert cycles in Croatian Music Institute, they are also regular guests at numerous national and international festivals (Varaždin Baroque Evenings, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Split Summer Festival, Korkyra Baroque Festival, Osor Musical Evenings, Musical Evenings in St. Donat, Histria festival, Croatian Passion Heritage, Organum Histriae, Concerts in Euphrasiana, Rovinj Summer Music Festival, Brod Musical Summer, Osijek Summer of Culture, Pag Cultural Summer, SEVICQ Brežice Festival, Festival of Croatian Music in Wiena, Esteban Salas Festivl (Havana – Cuba), International Baroque Festival Melk, Misiones de Chiquitos Festival (Bolivia), International Festival of Sacred Music in Rome, Festival Tesori musicali Toscani – Pisa and others).

In their concert programs, the ensemble often hosts prominent international and Croatian soloists and conductors, experts with an authentic approach in performing baroque music (Enrico Onofri, Adrian Butterfield, Laurence Cummings, Richard Egarr, Hervé Niquet, Stefano Montanari, Philip Pickett, Catherine Mackintosh, Werner Ehrhardt, Ryo Terakado, Aapo Häkkinnen, Richard Egarr, Peter Lönnerberg, Mimi Mitchell, David Staff, Theresa Caudle, Enrico Onofri, Alessandro Tampieri, Rachel Brown, Adrian Butterfield, Stefano Montanari, Marcello Gatti, Jaap ter Linden, Jacques Ogg). Croatian Society of Musical Artists gave Croatian Baroque Ensemble the Milka Trnina Award in 2002. Dubrovnik Summer Festival gave them the Orlando Award for their performance in 2014.

Except in Croatia, the ensemble performed in Austria, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Argentina, Cuba, Bolivia, Estonia, France, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia.

Chorus angelicus is a choir from Varaždin dedicated to performing pieces of Croatian and world musical heritage. Maestro Anđelko Igrec founded it in 1999 and now it consists of forty dedicated singers of all age. Its greatest strength, Chorus angelicus had shown on big and demanding projects – performance of complete masterpieces of world music heritage like G.F. Handel’s Messiah, J. S. Bach’s St John Passion, J. Haydn’s The Creation and C. Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Maria. As a result, the choir won Ivan Lukačić Award in 2016 for their performance of St John Passion by J. S. Bach, within Varaždin Baroque Evenings. The choir has held many concerts, mostly in Varaždin and its surroundings, but also in other parts of Croatia and abroad (they held international tours in Austria, Hungary, Israel). Thanks to projects of Varaždin Baroque Evenings, the choir collaborated with a number of Croatian and international ensembles specialized for baroque music. Some of them are Le Parlement de Musique from Strasbourg, Hofkapelle from München, Musica Coeli from Graz, Pratum Integrum from Moscow, Accademia Bizantina from Ravenna, Sonatores Panoniae from Hungary, Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, Croatian Baroque Ensemble and Camerata Garestin from Croatia. Although they have mostly baroque compositors on their repertoire, Chorus angelicus choir perform works from other periods as well – renaissance, classicism, romanticism and contemporary composers (Rutter, Ramirez, Orff, Igrec). Some of the performances are recorded on CDs (Mozart’s Requiem, musical Christmas in Varaždin Cathedral, Bach’s St John Passion, Igrec’s Songs of Worship and Praise). Within the project Ruksak pun kulture implemented by the Ministry of Culture, the members of the choir meet the young generations with some compositors, works of classical music and periods of their occurrence through educational visits to schools throughout Croatia.

Ensemble Koinonía (at Greek: community, public spirit) is the choir that presented itself forthe first time in Wiener Konzerthaus with Mozart’s Requiem in the year of Mozart, 1991, like Chorgemeinschaft BORG Hegelgasse 12. The choir was composed of music school students and those joined by the joy of common singing, Since many students remained faithful to the choir after finishing their education (from 1991 up to now), the independent chamber ensemble, Ensemble Koinonía, was founded in 2003/04. The ensemble has made its own concerts, co-production, and has been a guest of numerous ensembles (for example, Wiener Lehrer-A-Cappella-Chor, Wiener Evangelische Kantorei, Cantus Novus). The choir has worked in a series of concerts with Wiener Mozart Orchester. In the past 23 years, since Hans Hausreither leads the ensemble, the choir performed almost all great pieces of choir literature: Händel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Mass in B Minor, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Mendelssohn’s oratorios Elias and Paulus, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Brahms’s A German Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, etc. The choir recorded few CDs and works as the opera choir as well.

Anđelko Igrec finished his studies of composition, church music and orchestral conducting at

the University of Music in Vienna. Among others, his professors were Hans Haselböck, Erwin Ortner, Ivan Eröd, Uroš Lajovic and Johannes Wildner. From 1999 to 2017, he was Varaždin cathedral’s organist, the choirmaster and director of the Varaždin Diocese’s Office for Sacred Music.

As a conductor and compositor, he cooperates with Varaždin and Croatian Chamber Orchestra, the Choir and the Orchestra of Croatian Radiotelevision, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Croatian Baroque Ensemble and many other international ensembles. For a number of years, he worked as a professor at the Institute for Church Music in Zagreb and at the Organ Summer School in Šibenik, and he especially stands out with his pedagogical work with church choirmasters and organists in Varaždin Diocese.

A special place in his work takes Varaždin choir Chorus angelicus, with whom he, as a founder and choirmaster, has passed the development path from youth choir, cathedral choir, to the performing group. Now, Chorus Angelicus performs, with a great enthusiasm, the most challenging works of classical music literature like Monteverdi’s Vespro, Händel’s Dixit Dominus, Honegger’s King David and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.

Amongst awards he had received for his compositions, some should be pointed out – Josip Štolcer Slavenski Award, Jurica Murai for the organ recital at Varaždin Baroque Evenings and stimulants of Croatian Ministry of Culture – the last one is for the piece Quattro pezzi sacri written and performed in 2017 on the 20th anniversary of Varaždin Diocese.

CDs with his music (Pashalne slike, Kyrie, Psalmi, Može se živjet’ od ljubavi…) won several awards including Croatian discography award Porin.