Varaždin is ready for 46th Varaždin Baroque Evenings

This autumn, from September 23 to October 4, for the 46th time, Varaždin returns to Baroque period. Once again, Baroque music will replenish Varaždinian historical buildings, castle Trakošćan and several Croatian cities. This year’s partner country is the Kingdom of Spain, from which some famous and renowned musicians are arriving. They will promote authentic performance of Baroque and Renaissance music during 12 Festival days, when the audience can enjoy listening to various Spanish and Croatian musicians performing 15 concerts in Varaždin and Trakošćan. Varaždin Chamber Orchestra will hold the traditional concert of the awarded pupils of the Varaždin Music School the last day of the Festival.

This year’s program of the Festival was presented at the press conference in Varaždin City Hall. „In these two weeks the audience will have the opportunity to hear the best of what Spain has in the segment of Baroque music. An exotic program is prepared, which we had never had the opportunity to hear at the Festival and it will be unforgettable“, announced Davor Bobić, the director of Varaždin Baroque Evenings. Goran Habuš, mayor of the City of Varaždin, reminded us that Baroque Evenings are the oldest and the largest cultural brand of the City of Varaždin. “These days Varaždin can be seen through Baroque facades, felt through wonderful music, scented on flower exhibition and tasted through gastronomic delicacies“, emphasized the Mayor Habuš, while inviting the guests to visit Varaždin, at the begging of autumn. On the day of the grand opening of the 46th Varaždin Baroque Evenings, on Friday at 18 p.m, in the lobby of Great Concert Hall of the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin, the exhibition „Sacral-processional sculpture of the Spanish baroque“ will be opened, organized by the Spanish Embassy in Croatia. It will be set to October 4. The special feature of the exhibition will be the possibility to see it partly on the facade of the palace Sermage.

Spain has given a great contribution to this year’s Festival. Eduardo Aznar, the Ambassador in Republic of Croatia, was especially proud about the partnership with Spain. The organizers of Varaždin Baroque Evenings are doing their job excellent – that was my first impression when I visited your Festival. It is special to me because it presents Baroque music in an authentic way. I am impressed. For all that, it doesn’t surprises me that the Festival lasts for over 40 years and I hope that it will last at least as much, accentuated the Ambassador Aznar. Raymond Rojnik, the director of the Concert Agency Varaždin, expressed gratitude to all those who helped in maintaining the Festival. We have prepared 16 concerts in Varaždin and 9 out of the City of Varaždin. We will host 18 ensembles. 13 public institutions and agencies are partnered with the Festival, 22 companies are sponsors and there are 40 patrons. We’ve been working with the Spanish Embassy on the preparation of the Festival for a year, and we are very proud of international dimension of the Festival.We already know who will be the next year’s partner country. It will be Hungary, announced Rojnik. In the following weeks, concerts will be held in 4 counties, in these 9 cities: Križevci, Ludbreg, Krapina, Belec, Lopatinec, Varaždinske Toplice, Novi Marof, Prelog and Vinica. Thanks to the fact that the partner country of 46th Varaždin Baroque Evenings is Spain, we will have the opportunity to listen the pieces from its golden age. It is the music from the Spanish royal court, courts of aristocracy, cathedrals and churches. In addition to the secular repertoire, there is a spiritual one, with very interesting Spanish guest-musicians and highly worthy musicians. This year’s novelty is a concert with improvisations, a new practice in the authentic performance of the Baroque music. It is an attempt to revive what was the practice in Baroque period, when the musicians were also composers. They had been improvising their own music and hadn’t written it down – that is what we are trying to revive, emphasized dr. sc. Zdenka Weber, a Croatian musicologist and the president of the Festival jury. An overture to this year’s edition of Varaždin Baroque Evenings will be the International Flower Show that opens on Thursday, September 22, in its 21st edition. The theme is (already familiar) “Baroque-music-flowers”, while the sub-theme is “Flower Flamenco”.Varaždin Baroque Evenings have through the decades became not only a cultural, but also a tourist brand. This is the only continental festival of national importance. This year’s Festival is under the patronage of the president of the Republic of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, as always.