Mit - Index

Mit - UVK_Sinfo_2008_04April_1 - Index

s o C i e t y
huNgARIAN NATIONAL PhILhARMONIC
IN LJubLJANA
As part of the Slovenian Philharmonic’s programme presenting
the best achievements of contemporary musical creativity in
Europe, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra under
conductor Zoltan Kocsis appeared in the Gallus hall of Cankarjev
dom. They presented music by the famous Hungarian composers
Leo Weinre, Erno Dohnanyi, Bela Bartok, and Zoltan Kodaly.
The history of this famous orchestra goes back to 1923, when
the Metropolitan Orchestra was established, and swiftly rose
to become one of the main pillars of Hungarian musical life. It
was founded by Deszo Bor, who was artistic director for fifteen
years. After the war, it was directed by Ferenc Fracsay and Laszlo
Somogyi, and conducted also by Otto Kleper and Antal Dorati,
and later by anyone of importance in the European musical
world: Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, and the
soloists Svjetoslav Richter, Yehudi Menuhin and Ruggiero Ricci.
Therefore, the Hungarian guests are certainly among the most
eminent ever hosted by Slovenia.
SLOvENIAN MuSICAL DAYS
Slovenian Musical Days, now in its sixth year, has become the most
important festivals of contemporary Slovenian musical creativity.
This year, the work of Vinko Globokar was at the forefront and
his famous triptych ‘Angel of History’, a concert in three parts for
two orchestras and two conductors, was performed for the first
time in Slovenia. The original performance was by the Slovenian
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Philharmonic Orchestra, longstanding interpreters of Globokar’s
works, under French conductor Diego Masson and his German
colleague Michael Wanderberg, and live electronic realisation will
be performed by Experimental Studio from Freiburg. The theme
of the music is the disintegration of democracies, countries and
connected war disasters. Due to its particular complexity and
scenic elements, the composition was performed in Viba Film
Studio.
DAYS OF ThE SLOvENIAN bOOk
The Days of the Slovenian Book, this year taking place for the
thirteenth time, were opened in Ljubljana’s Zvezda Park by
the President of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, thereby symbolically
underlining the major significance that the Slovenes traditionally
attribute to books. This cultural project has long been among the
most important on the Slovenian cultural map and has attracted
a considerable number of visitors, especially book buyers.
However, the statistics on Slovenians and books do not show
trends that we should be very proud of - they indicate that while
publishers publish many books and readers read them, less and
less money is being invested in them. In 2006, 3306 original
books and 1368 translations, among them 44% novels, followed
by short stories, poems and plays were published. On average,
every library member borrowed some 46 books. However, in
the last six years the Slovenian household budget for books has
fallen: in 2000, a member of a household spent 0.42% of funds
on books; in the next two years, in 2004, 0.37%; and in 2005
only 0.32%. Obviously, more and more readers are resorting to
libraries and spending their money on other purchases.