JURIJ MIHEVEC
JURIJ MIHEVEC: PIÈCES CARACTÉRISTIQUES - MARINA HORAK (KLAVIR)
Classical and Modern Music
Format: CD
Code: 114120
EAN: 3838898114120
It was in 2008 when the then president of the oldest Slovenian Music Association “Glasbena matica”, Marko Vatovec brought to my attention a composer of the romantic period, who skilfully and successfully moved in Parisian salons, and who was completely unknown to me. His name was Jurij Mihevec (or Georges Micheuz) and I played his compositions for the first time on June 5th 2008 in the series Music out of Oblivion, a concert cycle
organized by Glasbena matica. They then became part of my repertoire and I wove them into programmes of my concerts in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Belgrade, in Slovenia, Croatia, Germany and the USA. Listeners responded with enthusiasm and often asked where they could purchase a recording.
The creative output of Mihevec is a particular example of a Slovenian success story in the period of the blossoming of Romanticism. As a contemporary of our great poet France Prešeren, who struggled for existence at home, Mihevec managed to pave his path to success in Paris, at the time the European capital of music “par excellence”. With his music that is full of lightness and freshness he found a respectable place alongside great masters like Chopin and Liszt
His “Pièces Caractéristiques” for piano are a prime example of romantically tinted salon style which excels with charming elegance. Particularly felicitous is the connection between the influences of the Italian belcanto and the whiff of Slovenian folk tunes and rhythms which gives his music an idiosyncratic quality making it radiate as a rare pearl of Slovenian musical creativity of the period.
I hope that my personal choice of these noble musical jewels offered on the present disc will represent a pleasing commemoration of the 210th anniversary of the composer's birth, convey the historic value of his art for today's musical environment and etch his personality into the map of Slovenian cultural awareness.
Marina Horak
Jurij Mihevec, known abroad as Georges Micheuz was a Slovenian composer and pianist, born on March 22nd 1805 in Ljubljana into the family of an innkeeper and grain trader. An early apparent musical talent received no support from his father, and nothing reliable is known about his early musical education. It is possible that he enjoyed lessons at the Ljubljana State Music School.
After he finished grammar school, Micheuz started studying law in Vienna, but soon gave up and devoted himself entirely to music. Undoubtedly, he had music teachers in Vienna; however, it is obvious that he remained, up to a point, an autodidact. Extraordinary natural musical talent interlinks with a too modest theoretical knowledge showing particularly in simple harmonic progressions, which he nevertheless uses to good dramatic effect.
Unproven legends say that he became friends with Beethoven and Schubert during his Vienna years. He did become well known with his operettas (of which The Planets are always Right was the most successful), cantatas, piano pieces as well as a music teacher. In 1828, a Vienna critic wrote: “Mihevec as a composer is well written in our memory, whereas today he demonstrated to be a seasoned pianist”. A sensation was his playing with the left elbow – with the aid of which he overcame a handicap
due to an injury to his left hand in his youth – using it for the virtuosic bass “accompaniment” to both hands.
Around 1845 Micheuz moved to Paris, where he was successfully active for several decades. His piano pieces – etudes, waltzes, nocturnes, serenades, mazurkas, romances, variations, overtures and paraphrases on popular operatic arias – were published with numerous publishers in Paris, London, Berlin, Leipzig, Milan, New York, Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere. Some of the publishing houses are still among the most notable today: Ricordi, Schott, Heugel, Schirmer, Leduc, Chapell, Salabert and
Diabelli. Baiser d'oiseaux (Kiss of the birds) saw its 50th edition in 1907.
He had many students, members of the higher society, for whom he wrote a great number of compositions compiled in a kind of piano method Le meilleur conseiller du pianiste (The best adviser for the pianist). One of his pupils was the Countess de Vaucouleurs, who stayed his devoted protector after he became destitute and fell ill in his old age. She provided for him and gave a place to live on her estate Villeroy in Mennecy, where he died on August 31st 1882.
Lucijan M. Škerjanc, a Slovenian composer and musicologist of note, wrote an extensive monography on Jurij Mihevec in 1957, including quotes from Vienna and Paris newspapers, letters, adding a full list of his compositions and an analysis. Inspired by his thoughts I summarize as follows:
"Jurij Mihevec was one of the long line that extends right up to our times of extremely gifted Slovenian musicians who lived and worked abroad but alas did not leave a trace in the musical life of their homeland. He represents a phenomenon that remains isolated and remarkable and is precisely therefore worthy of being researched, appreciated - and performed!"
Two legends of the international music life of the 20th century, Yehudi Menuhin and Nadia Boulanger, gave Marina Horak a send-off on her journey into a bright future. The latter stated, “Marina conveys her art with striking conviction”, whereas the great violinist characterized her as "a warm and charming personality who would be an asset to the musical life of any community ".
Marina Horak is the recipient of the coveted Betetto-Prize 2008, awarded for outstanding artistic achievements by the Association of Slovenian Musical Artists.
In 2013, she was given an Honourable Commendation for Successful and Dedicated Artistic and Pedagogical Work by the Senate of the Academy of Music, University of Ljubljana.
A Slovenian of Polish-Macedonian descent, she lived most of her life in Munich, Paris, London and in the Netherlands. After returning to Slovenia, she became Professor at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in 2003, while continuing to perform extensively at home and abroad.
Her CD with Sonatas by Slovenian composers (Škerjanc, Lipovšek, Šivic, Matičič) was highly acclaimed.
Her career includes concerts with orchestra and recitals, piano duo and chamber ensembles, recordings for radio and television throughout Europe, as well as guest appearances in Australia, New Zealand, Asia (India, Malasia, Brunei, Hong-Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Shanghai). She performed at numerous international festivals in France, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria, Switzerland, USA, Croatia, Slovenia and elsewhere.
She studied in Ljubljana, Munich, Paris and London. She is a prize-winner of international competitions in Zagreb, Vercelli, La Rochelle, Munich (ARD), and received awards from Yugoslav Broadcasting Corporation (JRT Belgrade) and the Dutch Gaudeamus Foundation.
With Marina Horak the Music society Glasbena matica, in its caring for the Slovenian heritage, acquired a performer who embarks on segments of the musical material with a specific urgency, born probably out of her early contact with the aristocracy of spirit, out of her natural connection with the art […] the central part of the programme opened up like a space of symbiosis with its vibrations between the performer and the music she played.
Jure Dobovišek, Music Magazine Glas, 2009
TRACKS:
1. Soleil couchant, op. 212 - Caprice (listen!)
Sončni zahod / Sonnenuntergang / The Sunset
2. Bonheur disparu!, op. 187 - Rêverie
Izginula sreča! / Verschwundenes Glück! / Lost happiness!
3. Les hirondelles du Presbytère, op. 154 – Nocturne
Samostanske lastovke / Die Klosterschwalben / Swallows in the Monastery
4. Nids et Berceaux, op. 157 - Rêverie
Gnezda in zibke / Neste und Wiegen / Nests and Cradles
5. Le Diable et son train, op. 188 - Galop
Vrag s svojim spremstvom / Der Teufel und sein Geleit / The Devil and his Retinue
6. Laure, op. 100 n°1 - Polka-Mazurka
7. Caroline, op. 100 n°2 - Polka-Mazurka
8. Nuit sereine, op. 218 – Caprice-Mélodie
Zvezdna noč / Sternennacht / Starry Night
9. Alleluia des Oiseaux, op. 156 - Invocation
Hvalnica ptic / Lobgesang der Vögel / Birds Praising the Lord
10. Jeux de Colombes, op. 200 – Fantaisie-Mazurka
Igre grlic / Taubenspiele / Games of the Doves
11. La Fontaine qui pleure, op. 186 – Morceau de salon
Vodomet joče / Der Springbrunnen weint / The Weeping Fountain
12. Les Mandolines, op. 189 - Sérénade
Mandoline / Mandolinen / The Mandolins
13. La Tonelli, op. 102 – Fantaisie facileLa Tonelli – lahka fantazija / Leichte Fantasie / Easy Fantasy.
14 Lucifer, op. 161 - Galop brillant
15. Soupirs de Roméo, op. 158 – Sérénade-Prière
Romeo vzdihuje / Romeo seufzt / Romeo's Sighs
16. Bourdonnement d'Abeilles, op. 155 – Caprice de genre
Brenčanje čebel / Die Bienen summen / Humming of the Bees
17. Le fier Toréador, op. 193 - Boléro
Ponosni toreador / Der stolze Toreador / The Proud Toreador
Marina Horak, piano