LOJZE LEBIČ: ANTOLOGIJA (4 X CD)

Classical and Modern Music

Format: 4 x CD

Code: 115639

EAN: 3838898115639

In the statement accompanying the awarding of the Prešeren Prize to composer Lojze Lebič (1934) for his life work in 1994, musicologist Dr Katarina Bedina wrote that all of the recognitions, awards and honours bestowed to date “substantiate the composer’s importance in Slovenian art […] and, for his lifetime, guarantee him the status of a classic of contemporary music”. A quarter of a century later, as the composer’s oeuvre continues to be expanded and supplemented, this can be affirmed even more emphatically. However, the composer’s development, his questioning of aesthetic and composition-technical starting points, has not proceeded in a straightforward and rectilinear manner, but gradually, in a constant reading of his attitude to the present, to society, to the world, and even to holiness. Lebič is convinced that “good music requires grace, and only then skill”, that music is therefore “first a higher knowledge, and only then, with the aid of theory and science (analysis), an aesthetic object”. A similar dependence on the metaphysical is revealed by the thought that “music is also an act of love”. Although the composer’s art is not directly social, it remains connected to worldly events through its humanist note and its expressive undertones. The composer uses another metaphor for this kind of verification of attitude towards the world when he speaks of a composition being “a seismograph of spiritual states and moods”.
Lebič began to stretch the bowstring of his attitude towards the world as early as during his years at grammar school in Ravne na Koroškem, Slovenia (1946–1952), where the teachers “smuggled in the pre-war classical humanist spirit”. These years mark Lebič’s first serious contacts with music and musical activity, as well as the beginnings of his first experiments in composition. In 1952, he enrolled to study archaeology at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, but the following year he began attending the Music and Ballet High School in parallel to his regular studies. Although the composer knew from the start that his true passion was music, his studies of archaeology nonetheless gave rise to important emphases, which are evident in his aesthetic thinking, especially in the various archetypes that characterise Lebič and help him “to understand and reconcile the contradiction between old and new, folk and artistic, enduring and fleeting, superficial”.
In 1957, Lebič enrolled at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, where he studied composition with Marjan Kozina. The following year, he decided to study conducting with Danilo Švara, as well. His studies at the Academy were prolonged for various reasons, one of which is certainly the past-oriented outlooks of the composition professors, who were unable or unwilling to pass on the right information or guidance to the young, burgeoning generation of the time. As Lebič recalls: “None of my teachers wanted to know that concerts of musique concrète and electronic music were already being organised in Paris and Cologne. In general, it is difficult for me to judge what my music teachers actually meant to me. Most of them were negligent and narrow-minded, and failed to mention anything to us about the Second Viennese school, or Bartók, Hindemith and Stravinsky.”
Lebič’s dissatisfaction with the situation in Slovenian musical life at the time was shared by his other composer colleagues at the Academy. In 1961, he joined his fellow young composers in the group Pro musica viva, which initially operated in the form of informal meetings and discussions, but later expanded its activities to include not only organising concerts, but also the production of sheet music. In parallel with his composing career, Lebič increasingly established himself as a choral conductor. In the 1960/61 season, he became the conductor of the Tone Tomšič Academic Choir, and in 1962 he took over the RTV Slovenia Chamber Choir. It was with the latter that he visited Poland for the first time, attending the Warsaw Autumn Festival and thus having an opportunity to learn about the development of current contemporary music elsewhere in Europe. In the 1970s, Lebič also visited Darmstadt, the cradle of post-war musical Modernism. In time, more and more information therefore found its way to the composer. From 1961, composers had an opportunity become familiar with contemporary compositional currents at the Zagreb Biennale, while Lebič also learned indirectly through books and articles in which important European composers of the time revealed their metier. Thus he read “Stockhausen’s [contributions] to Struktur und Erlebniszeit and …wie die Zeit vergeht…, Ligeti’s reflections on changes in musical forms in die Reihe and Darmstädter Beiträge, and, of course, Boulez’s Penser la Musique aujourd’hui”.
Lebič did not, however, reach his final destination with the purification of Modernism. In the late 1970s, he began to perceive Modernism as “an increasingly empty rotating mill”. In his own works, he sowed more and more “recognisable signs” (quotes, allusions, simulated quotes, the infiltration of music from other genres or historical environments), in order to find his way to “the kind of grammatical feeling that would restore to music some of the lost capacity of utterance”. Flirting with tradition, archetypal models and less conflictive musical material is no longer “forbidden”: the composer is aware of the limits of Modernism, with regard to which he defines himself in an increasingly active and personal way, seeking an entirely personal expressiveness, which should be independent of foreign influences. The hermeticism of Modernism is broken; different musical “worlds” can reside alongside each other in the same composition, making the composer’s works more “eloquent” and indicating that he has accepted some of the basic postulates of postmodernism.
It is precisely this constant adaption to the world, the gauging of its “temperature”, that renders the unambiguous definition of Lebič’s music impossible, precluded by numerous opposites, dichotomies and ambivalences. In reality, however, the optics need only be rotated a little: Lebič’s music and its “metaphysical” content grow precisely out of these dualisms of tension and their overcoming. The composer is obviously aware of this, as he acknowledges that everything was “in two, and so it remains. Rural and urban, romantic and realist, traditionalist and modernist, with intellect towards the West (Darmstadt), with the Slavic archetype within myself oriented towards the East (Warsaw Autumn), from nearby an inhabitant of Slovenia/Carinthia, from afar a cosmopolitan”.
The composer’s oeuvre nevertheless proves to be homogeneous, especially in the sense that it is distinctly balanced in terms of genre: symphonic, chamber and choral works were all produced with the same seriousness, and this balance can also be sought in the various periods of the composer’s creativity.

Tracks:

CD1 Orkestralna dela I / Orchestral Works I

Požgana trava za mezzosopran in orkester (1965, rev. 1986) [Ed. DSS 338]
Scorched Grass for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
(besedila/words by Dane Zajc)    
1. Tvoj glas / Your Voice
2. Vrnitev / The Return
3. Ujeti volk / Captive Wolf
4. Fragmenti iz Prsti jutra / Fragments from the Fingers of the Morning  
Marjana Lipovšek, mezzosopran/mezzo-soprano
Simfonični orkester RTV Ljubljana / RTV Ljubljana Symphony Orchestra
Stanislav Macura, dirigent/conductor
5. Glasba za orkester - Cantico I za simfonični orkester (1997) [Ed. DSS 1458]
Music for orchestra - Cantico I for symphony orchestra
Orkester Slovenske filharmonije / Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
Marko Letonja, dirigent/conductor
6. Glasba za orkester - Cantico II za simfonični orkester (2001) [Ed. DSS 1600]
Music for orchestra - Cantico II for symphony orchestra
Orkester Slovenske filharmonije / Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
David Itkin, dirigent/conductor
7. Miti in apokrifi za basbariton in orkester (1998/99) [Ed. DSS 1505]
Myth and Apocrypha for bass-baritone and orchestra
(besedila/words by Veno Taufer)
Marcos Fink, basbariton/bass-baritone
Simfonični orkester RTV Slovenija / RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra
Anton Nanut, dirigent/conductor

Orkestralna dela II / Orchestral Works II

1. Korant za simfonični orkester (1969) [Ed. DSS 462 – BG 976]
Korant for symphony orchestra
Simfonični orkester RTV Slovenija / RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra
Samo Hubad, dirigent/conductor
2. Queensland Music za simfonični orkester (1989) [Ed. DSS 1246]
Queensland Music for symphony orchestra
Simfonični orkester RTV Slovenija / RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra
Marko Letonja, dirigent/conductor
3. Novembrske pesmi za mezzosopran in orkester (1981/82) [Ed. DSS 1011]
November Songs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
(besedila/words by Miran Jarc)
Eva Novšak-Houška, mezzosopran/mezzo-soprano
Simfonični orkester RTV Slovenija / RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra
Anton Nanut, dirigent/conductor
4. Tangram za komorni orkester (1977) [Ed. DSS 851 – EP 5670]
Tangram for chamber orchestra
Komorni orkester RTV Slovenija / RTV Slovenia Chamber Orchestra
Uroš Lajovic, dirigent/conductor

Komorna dela / Chamber Works

1. Invokacija za klarinet in klavir (2002) [Mc. DSS 132]
Invocatio for clarinet and piano
Duo Claripiano
Dušan Sodja, klarinet/clarinet
Tatjana Kaučič, klavir/piano
2. Sonet za klavir (1976) [Ed. DSS 850 – EP 5491]
Sonnet for piano
Nina Prešiček, klavir/piano
Ekspresije za violino, violončelo in klavir (1968, rev. 1972) [Ed. DSS 465]
Expressions for violin, violoncello and piano    
3. Recitativo a due
4. Aggressivo
Trio Lorenz
Tomaž Lorenz, violina/violin
Matija Lorenz, violončelo/violoncello
Primož Lorenz, klavir/piano
5. Atelje III za violončelo in tonski trak (1976) [Ed. DSS 1389]
Atelier III for violoncello and tape
Ciril Škerjanec, violončelo/violoncello
Dogodki II za pihalni kvintet (2002) [Ed. DSS 1708]
Events II for woodwind quintet    
6. I
7. II.
Pihalni kvintet Slowind / Slowind Wind Quintet
Aleš Kacjan, flavta/flute
Matej Šarc, oboa/oboe
Jurij Jenko, klarinet/clarinet
Metod Tomac, rog/horn
Paolo Calligaris, fagot/bassoon
8. Rej za harmoniko (1995) [Ed. DSS 1520]
Rej for accordion
Klemen Leben, harmonika/accordion
9. Barvni krog za sedem izvajalcev (2008) [Ed. DSS 1940]
Colour circle for seven performers
Ansambel za sodobno glasbo MD7 / MD7 Contemporary Music Ensemble
Matej Zupan, flavta/flute
Jože Kotar, klarinet/clarient
Mihael Šuler, pozavna/trombone
Franci Krevh, tolkala/percussion
Luca Ferrini, klavir/piano
Katja Krajnik, violina/violin
Igor Mitrović, violončelo/violoncello
Steven Loy, dirigent/conductor

CD4 Zborovska dela / Choral Works

1. Hvalnica svetu za mešana zbora in inštrumente (1988) [Ed. DSS 1281]
Euology to the World for mixed choir and instruments
(besedila/words by Branko Miljković, prev. Veno Taufer)
APZ Tone Tomšič/Tone Tomšič Academic Choir
Jože Fürst, zborovodja/conductor
Josip Mihelčič, tolkala/percussion
Tjaša Kranjc, klavir/piano
Matjaž Barbo, klavir/piano
Letni časi za mladinski ali ženski zbor (1975 - 1997) [ZKDS Lojze Lebič IDSS 36]
The Seasons for youth or female choir    
2. Pomlad / Spring
3. Poletje / Summer
4. Jesen / Autumn
5. Zima / Winter
Carmina Slovenica
Karmina Šilec, zborovodja/conductor
6. Upanje za mladinski ali ženski zbor, 4 melodike (akordični instrument in kljunaste flavte ad lib.) (2000)
The Hope for youth or female choir, 4 melodics (chordal instrument and recorders ad lib.)
(besedila/words by Anton Vodnik, Anica Černe)
Carmina Slovenica
Karmina Šilec, zborovodja/zborovodja
Olga Pečeny, orgle/orgna
Jasna Vantur, melodika/melodica
Jasmina Erker, melodika/melodica
Živa Ploj, melodika/melodica
Zvezdana Novakovič, melodika/melodica
Maja Bohinc, melodika/melodica
7. Urok za mladinski ali ženski zbor (1986) [Naši zbori XXXIX/95]
The Spell for youth or female choir
(ljudska besedila/folk texts)
Mladinski pevski zbor RTV Slovenija / RTV Slovenia Youth Choir
Tomaž Pirnat, zborovodja/conductor
8. Pesem o smrti za soliste, mešani zbor, tolkala in sintetizator (1991) [Ed. SLKD]
Song of Death for soloists, mixed choir, percussion and synthesizer
(besedila/words by Gregor Strniša)    10:45
Komorni zbor RTV Slovenija / RTV Slovenia Chamber Choir
Matjaž Šček, zborovodja/conductor
Marko Juvan, tolkala/percussion
Boris Šurbek, tolkala/percussion
Tomaž Pirnat, klaviature/keyboards
9. Vse druge ljubezni za alt, mešani zbor in instrumente (2004) iz Roman de Fauvel (1986)
All other loves for alto, mixed choir and instruments from Roman de Fauvel
Komorni zbor RTV Slovenija / RTV Slovenia Chamber Choir
Stojan Kuret, zborovodja/conductor
Anja Slivnik, alt/alto
Primož Bratina, klavir/piano
Jernej Šurbek, tolkala/percussion
Boris Šurbek, tolkala/percussion
Tomaž Pirnat, sintetizator/synth
Meta Skok, kitara/guitar
10. Skopost za mešani zbor in inštrumente (1986) iz Roman de Fauvel (1986) [Ed. DSS 2062]
Avarice for mixed choir and instruments from Roman de Fauvel
APZ Tone Tomšič
Jernej Habjanič, zborovodja
11. Čas za mladinski ali ženski zbor (2008)
Time for youth or female choir
(besedila/words by Jakob Šešerko)
Dekliški zbor sv. Stanislava Škofijske klasične gimnazije Ljubljana
Helena Fojkar Zupančič, zborovodja
Sara Bitenc, solo
Maja Horvat, solo
Maja Škufca, solo
12. Ta druml'ca je zvomlana za mešani zbor (1951) [Naši zbori XXIII/86]
This Jew's Harp is broken for mixed choir
(ljudsko besedilo/words folk)
APZ Tone Tomšič
Stojan Kuret, zborovodja
13. Luba vigred se rodi za mešani zbor (1974) [Naši zbori XXVII/94]
The beloved spring is born for mixed choir
(ljudsko besedilo/words folk)
Komorni zbor AVE
Andraž Hauptman, zborovodja
14. Kako kratek je ta čas za mešani zbor (2012) [Ed. KD Mohorjan, 2013]
How time flies for mixed choir
(ljudsko besedilo/folk texts)
APZ Tone Tomšič
Sebastjan Vrhovnik, zborovodja