The true "American dream" is already coming true for the entire composition of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, since a delegation of 96 musicians with chief conductor Muhai Tang is in America on an eight-day tour under the same name and is "conquering" it with their enthusiasm, as well as a well-prepared program consisting of a combination of national and international repertoire. As announced, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra will perform for the first time since 1923, when it was founded, during the tour in the most important centers of American music performing arts: "Symphony Center" in Chicago, "Severance Hall" in Cleveland, "Stratmore Hall" in Washington, and as a grand finale, a visit to the famous "Carneghie Hall" in New York was announced. The current Minister of Culture and Information and long-term director of the Belgrade Philharmonic, Ivan Tasovac, said at a press conference on the occasion of this tour: "I think that the tour in the USA is a significant thing, and not only because we are opening a new page in the history of the Belgrade Philharmonic." Throughout its history, Serbia has had many successful individuals who represented it in a good way, from Nikola Tesla and Mihajlo Pupin to Vlad Divac, Emir Kusturica, Marina Abramović and Novak Đoković, but we were not recognized to that extent by institutions, and it seems to me that this step of the Belgrade Philharmonic opens the way for other cultural institutions in Serbia. What we need is a greater dose of optimism. As you can see, dreams come true in these areas as well. It is important that this tour should represent a new, real model of private-state partnership, as a basis for the success of our culture."
CULTURAL DIPLOMA: It was this model that helped the Belgrade Philharmonic to collect significant funds for such an undertaking, which truly represents cultural diplomacy at the highest level, which is why this tour was supported, among others, by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, and the American Embassy in the Republic of Serbia. The credit for the collected funds, in addition to domestic and foreign companies as well as anonymous donors, certainly goes to the conductor Zubin Mehta, who is a long-time friend and associate of this orchestra and one of the main advocates for the Belgrade Philharmonic, Belgrade and Serbia to get a real concert hall.
The repertoire that will be presented to the American audience was designed by musicologists Asja Radonjić and Danica Maksimović, who have been managing the repertoire and program policy of our oldest and most important active professional orchestra for two years (since the 2012/2013 season). In the spirit of good cultural diplomacy, the American audience will be offered a program composed of a combination of compositions by national and international composers. Works that belong to the top repertoire are included, and at the same time are attractive to a wider audience. Thus, the audience in America will have the opportunity to hear achievements such as Slavic march Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, masquerade Aram Khachaturian, Symphony No.. 2 Jan Sibelius, First Orchestral Suite Ohrid legend founder and first director of the Belgrade Philharmonic, Stevan Hristić, as well as representative excerpts from Verdi's operas Macbeth i rigole which will be performed with the orchestra by Željko Lučić, a world-famous baritone of our origin who has been permanently engaged in the "Metropolitan" Opera in New York for a long time. As announced, an encore is planned Turtle dove Stevan Hristić and March on the Drina Stanislav Binički.
…and Željko Lučić
SEASON OPENING: This year's season of the Belgrade Philharmonic "Optimism as a Diagnosis" was officially opened on September 19 with the singing of the national anthem God of justice. In the spirit of the announcement of the American tour, the program of this concert from the "Bizarrte" cycle was composed of compositions by American composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. In the first part of the program, the orchestra performed compositions by John Coriliano, Christopher Rouse and John Adams, lesser-known but very talented American composers who studied the possibilities of orchestral sound as well as composition using the technique of minimalism, which led to the creation of a series of good and effective orchestral miniatures, the best of which have remained in the repertoire to this day, and which we were able to hear on this occasion, under the direction of resident conductor Vladimir Kulenović in a really excellent intonationally precise, rhythmically and dynamically very defined performance. The performance of the work attracted the special attention of the audience that evening Talas composer Vuk Kulenović, who has been living and working in Boston (USA) for twenty years. His creation can be interpreted as a one-movement symphonic poem-fantasy done in an expressionist style with a hierarchically built structure and very effective dynamic ups and downs that truly depict the wave as such in a mimetic sense. In the second part of the program, classics of American musical literature by Charles Ives, Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin were performed. The mystical sound of Ives Unanswered question and Bernstein's bombastic range of rhythms Candide overture he was overshadowed by the powerful baritone of Michael Redding who, together with the not so conspicuous soprano of Donita Walkwein, sang representative passages of American opera Porgy and Bess George Gershwin. Redding's voice is outstanding and his acting talent harmoniously complements his overall interpretation of such demanding character characters as Gershwin's Porgy. Famous track Summertime in Volkwein's interpretation, it was performed a bit palely without enough character and therefore lost its appeal. The duets sung by Reding and Volkwein were filled with sincere emotion, however, there was still a noticeable difference in the quality of these two voices, which was even more pronounced on this occasion.
REPERTOIRE POLICY: In this year's season, top works by international and unfortunately only three works by national composers were announced. In this respect, this imbalance of the season's repertoire represents a really bad message, but also a challenge for the future for artistic organizers in creating the repertoire policy of the orchestra, which, thanks to its performance quality, has long been considered the most important national professional ensemble. This season, the audience will be able to hear exceptional soloists, international artists with enviable careers, such as Berlin Philharmonic flautist Emanuele Pagio, cellist Miklos Perenyi, violinist Vadim Rjepin, pianist Elissa Virsaladze, pianist Nelson Frere and many others. It is well known that the same orchestra sounds different under the direction of different conductors. This season we are expecting the sound of the Belgrade Philharmonic under the direction of Uroš Lajović, Libor Pešek, Zoltan Kočiš, Mihajlo Jurovski, Vladimir Kulenović, chief conductor Muhaji Tang and many others.
Our audience had the opportunity to hear part of the program that will be performed during the American tour in the hall of the Ilija M. Kolarc Endowment on September 26 as part of the "From the Chef's Kitchen" series, when the orchestra performed under the direction of chief conductor Muhai Tang, and after this concert, a large audience gave the orchestra a standing ovation to send the orchestra off to America.
After the American tour, the Belgrade Philharmonic has scheduled tours in Germany and Switzerland, and the chief conductor Muhai Tang has announced that he will work on getting the orchestra to go on tour in China soon.
