Tuesday, September 25, 8 p.m.
St.Nicholas’ Church
CROATIAN BAROQUE ENSEMBLE
Setsuko Sugita & Laura Vadjon, violins
Lea Susanj Lujo, violoncello
Izidor Erazem Grafenauer, theorbo
Pavao Mašić, harpsichord; organ
Programme:
THE MAGIC OF DAZZLING MUSIC
Biagio Marini
Sonata sopra La Monica op.8, for two violins & basso continuo
Dario Castello
Sonate concertate in stil moderno, libro secondo
Sonata seconda, for a violin & basso continuo
Sonata quarta, for two violins & basso continuo
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber
Harmonia artificioso-ariosa
Partia VI in D Major, for two violins & basso continuo
Preludium: Adagio-Allegro
Aria: Variatio I-XIII
Finale: Adagio-Allegro
Johann Sebastian Bach
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, for solo violin, arranged by E.Onofri
Antonio Vivaldi
Sonata in F major, RV 68, for two violins & basso continuo
Allegro
Andante
Allegro
George Friedrich Händel
Trio Sonata op.2 no.6 in G major, HWV 391, for two violins & basso continuo
Andante
Allegro
Arioso
Allegro
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Sonata Sanguineus et Melancholicus in C minor, H.579, for two violins and basso continuo
Allegretto-Presto
Adagio
Allegro
About the performer:
Croatian Baroque Ensemble is the most prominent Croatian ensemble specialized in historically 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 TrninaAward 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.
Setsuko Sugita studied violin on the Department of Instrumental Music at the University of Tokyo and then in the class of Franz Samohyl, one of the most prominent violin pedagogues at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna. From 1996 to 2010, she was a professor of violin at the University Ibaraga in Japan. At that time, she won awards at the chamber music competition in Japan and at the international competition La Parma d’Oro in Italy. She is playing baroque violin since 2006 when she met Enrico Onofri in Firenza. From 2006 to 2009, she was a member of baroque orchestra Divino Sospiro in Lisbon, with which she performed numerous concerts and recorded many CDs. She founded her own baroque orchestra in Tokyo, named Cipango Consort and organized concerts of Enrico Onofri – they even performed together with the great approval of audience and critics. Their concerts were ranked in top ten, even five best concerts according to music magazines like CD Journal, Mostly Classic, Japanese Ongaku No Tomo (The Friends of Music) and others. Critics from French magazine Diapason especially praised violin duo, which she performed with E. Onofri on his solo album named The Secrets of Baroque Violin in 2008. This spring, she joined Onofri’s Ensemble Imaginarium in Italy and Germany on recording the CD. She lives in Switzerland since 2017.