Guitar Days
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Guitar Days - genesis and chronology of a crescendo
It was clear from the tremendous success of the Guitar Days festival in May 2002 that it is attracting more and more attention from both the public and critics. But most people are unaware of its genesis. Professor Ante Čagalj of the “Elly Bašić” Music School in Zagreb, the main mover and organiser of the festival, traces its beginnings to the late 1980s when his guitar students regularly gathered to perform at the end of their school year. Running parallel to the festival in the early 1990s were Professor Čagalj’s guitar masterclass at the unspoiled, idyllic isle of Hvar off the Dalmatian coast; these classes form part of the well-established summer school Upbeat-Hvar of cellist Professor Dobrila Berković-Magdalenić. There is also a second and smaller version of the Hvar masterclass during the winter break at the Elly Bašić Music School.
Over the years both Zagreb Guitar Days and Upbeat-Hvar have become important meeting points for guitarists from all generations in Croatia and, after the peace of 1995, from abroad. In fact almost every young Croatian guitarist has appeared in at least one festival.
In the beginning of Guitar Days only students of Ante Čagalj performed at the festival. Then students came from other schools, first from Zagreb and then from Split (especially from 1992 when the guitar department of the Music Academy in Split was opened), and finally from all over Croatia. Čagalj also regularly organized seminars with distinguished Croatian guitarists (István Römer, Darko Petrinjak, Viktor Vidović) and some lesser known students such as Zoran Dukić and Edin Karamazov who were then just beginning their splendid careers.
Guitar days has heard the best of Čagalj’s pupils, first the Zagreb Guitar Quartet, and later Robert Belinić whose 1996 appearance at the festival (as a 15-year old) was his first appearance on the Croatian scene (personally I will never forget his brilliant performance of Papandopulo’s Dance No. 3). These artists encouraged successes by others, resulting in numerous concerts and prizes at national and international competitions.
In 1998 Guitar Days welcomed its first artists from abroad, from Prague the duo Lucile Skalnikova and Ozren Mutak and from Slovenia the soloist Tomaz Rajterič who is a professor at the Ljubljana Music Academy. In 1999 leading performers included the Italian Carlo Marchione who gave his first performance in Croatia. In 2001 the guest of the festival was Colin Cooper, musical writer and editor of the guitar magazine Classical Guitar, who was on his first visit to Croatia.
In the July 2001 edition of his magazine, Colin Cooper published a glowing review of two festival evenings in Zagreb, namely concerts by Robert Belinić and by the Zagreb Guitar Quartet which performed the complete version of Bach’s Art of the Fugue. The August 2001 edition of Classical Guitar included an article on this version of Bach’s great work for 4 guitars as well as the following comment by Colin Cooper on the book “Bach - An Extraordinary Life” (Edition ABRSM Publishing, London) by the harpsichordist Davitt Moroney: “Moroney is hard on the ‘vast number of arrangements’ that have been ‘unjustifiably’ made of The Art of Fugue, which he asserts is keyboard music (despite the fact that no instrumentation is indicated). Of course he is a harpsichordist himself, but I recently heard an arrangement for guitar quartet, played by the Zagreb Guitar Quartet, and I find it hard to think of anything that could have been more justifiable. This arrangement brought out all the music, all the delight, all the fun, all the skill of a supreme master near the end of his working life.” Colin Cooper’s impressions of the 2001 Guitar Days festival were continued in the October 2001 edition of Classical Guitar, where he described Croatia as an ever-flowing natural spring of guitar talent, and heaped praise on Professor Čagalj’s teaching skills and organizational enthusiasm.
At the 2002 Guitar Days festival, Bosnian lutenist Edin Karamazov returned to Croatia after more than a decade of absence to perform there, but this time as an internationally recognised artist. In Vjesnik dated 13 May 2002, Dodi Komanov acknowledged the performance in these words: “It was a marvellous concert, one of the very special ones we have heard in Croatia”.
Turning to a less attractive but necessary component of Guitar Days, I asked Professor Ante Čagalj how was it possible to construct the financial basis for the festivals and he replied in characteristic fashion “It’s not possible!”. The reason for that reply was that until recently the administrative cultural institutions had ignored the festival. But this year the City of Zagreb and the Ministry of Culture assisted, and with further help from the Elly Bašić Music School and from two generous sponsers Formica Ltd and the guitar maker Mirko Hotko, for the first time the festival has managed to at least cover its expenses. But essentially Guitar Days is a festival for enthusiastic music lovers and the meeting point for all Croatian guitarists. Finally I would like to repeat Colin Cooper’s question “Where does Croatia find all this talent?” and refer to a review by Bosiljka Perić-Kempf in Novi list of 13 May 2002: “Over the 15 years of its existence, Guitar Days has confirmed that it is a rare oasis for artists and a festival of sophisticated chamber music-making”.
And for the next festival there are some new premieres and surprises in preparation which the Zagreb music world will soon enjoy!