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55th Dubrovnik Summer Festival
2004
Croatia
DALIBOR CIKOJEVIĆ
piano
Rector's Palace Atrium
13august
9.30 pm
Boris Papandopulo: SONATINA
Allegro
Andante sostenuto
Con brio
CONTRADANZA
SCHERZO FANTASTICO
10 x 1, TEN MUSIC IMPRESSIONS LASTING ONE MINUTE EACH
Allegro moderato
Adagio
Vivace
Pesante
Allegro moderato
Allegretto
Moderato
Andantino
Allegro
Allegro con brio
***
PARTITA
Popevka (Andante con moto)
Igra (Allegro moderato)
Adagietto
Toccata (Presto)
EIGHT ETUDES
Con brio
Tempo di blues
Allegro moderato
Allegro vivace
Andante con moto
Allegro moderato
Tempo di tango
Vivacissimo
Pianist Dalibor Cikojević was born in Split, where he started to study music at the age of
seven. In 1984 he graduated from the Split Music School under Jelka Bakašun. He then
moved to Vienna where he graduated and got his M. A. degree from the College of Music
under Alexander Jenner. Essential for his further studies was working with Oleg Maisenberg
and Carmen Graf Adnet. He started to perform officially at an early age at many festivals at
home and abroad including the Zagreb Summer Festival, the Split Summer Festival, the Osor
Music Evenings, the Rab Music Festival, the George Enescu Festival and the Vienna Festive
Weeks. Under the baton of Nikša Bareza, Peter Burwik and Ivo Lipanović he had acclaimed
appearances with the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, the Opera
Orchestra of the Croatian National Theatre of Split and the Wiener Ensemble des 20. Jhr. As
chamber musician, he appeared with the Zagreb Soloists and many renowned musicians from
music circuits of Zagreb and Vienna. In addition to his concert activities, he also works as
pedagogue in Austria (at the Vienna Music University, etc.), gives numerous master courses
and lectures at the Zagreb Academy of Music. He is engaged in writing as well and his novel
The Heritage of the Last of the Composers was published by Ljevak Publishers in 2003.
During his rich creative practice, Croatian composer Boris Papandopulo (1906-1991) tried
his skill in various music forms, from vocal miniature, over chamber and instrumental
compositions, up to symphony, opera and oratory. In his first composing phase, before the
war, Papandopulo, “carried away by his youthful temperament, was infatuated with the
virtuoso treatment of musical means of expression, polyphonic play of tones, bright
combination of sounds, external decorativeness and optimistic cheerfulness.’ In that creative
period particularly prominent is the composer’s affinity for the baroque motor rhythm and
essential elements of the neoclassical style. Archaic sounds of some, at the time, anthological
works seem to inspect the very roots of music, finding thereby the unavoidable sources of
ritual, move and dance. After the World War II, Papandopulo tries to follow some guidelines
of the European modernism, yet he does not disengage himself from traditional formats of
the music cells, from conventional motif-structural development, or established laws of
melodic flow. In time more modern sounds gradually get through this extensive opus and the
master sometimes also employs the basis of dodecaphonic or serial structural phrase.
Although Papandopulo sees almost each of the ideological-aesthetical directions of our
century as a basis from which he will embark on an unknown and dangerous search for its
echoes within himself, he nevertheless does not incline to any of the creative schools. Thus
no doctrine triumphed over Papandopulo, but he himself never triumphed over any creative
credo as well: the music ideology and aesthetics, on one side, and the practical and above all
skilful musician Papandopulo, on the other, played a drawn life game. However, on his
journey towards artistic maturity, and an ever-increasing content-relating enrichment of his
own music, Papandopulo never neglected the basic principle of his composing approach to
the piece; its elaboration and final moulding on the basis of pure music substance. If a kind of
a definition is to be given anyway, than the summary of Papandopulo’s opus should be
looked for in a kind of a synthesis of all major world-music influences with rhythmicalmelodic-harmonic features of Croatian folk melos.
A brilliant pianist, Boris Papandopulo dedicated a large part of his opus to the piano. This
concert is dedicated to this significant part of his output, full of impulsive but fresh, masterful
yet concise clear and intelligent details.
Papandopulo composed his three-movement Sonatina in 1942, dedicating it to the renowned
pianist Melita Lorković (1907 – 1987). The introductory Allegro in 4/4 measure bears
interesting traces of the Debussy's and Ravel's understanding of the pentatonic. Yet, the neoimpressionist mood (not so often found in Papandopulo's output) in the central part of the
movement withdraws before the advancement of the folk elements. The moving force of this
movable, joyful, bright, optimistic and energetic mood is the singable and distinctive main
theme, coming out from the descending scale, which appears in various tonalities. The
tension gradually increases in the central part of the movement in order to clear out and calm
down at its end. The slow central movement (Andante sostenuto in 3/4 measure) is constantly
agile with occasional halts, which reflects in its sub-title Tempo rubato. It begins with an
interesting recitative solo, as if composed for the clarinet that slowly turns into an
impressionable richly ornamented meditation followed by the permanently pulsating,
chromatically descending chords. The Shostakovich-like moods interchange with the
Croatian folklore melodic motives. Very prominent is the appearance of the increased
second, typical of Papandopulo. Logically completing its melodic span, the movement dies
out in the effective, hardly audible, end. The final movement Con brio (in 2/4 measure) is a
playful, but also singable (in the manner of Gotovac) movement of simple harmonies, a
multicoloured toccata full of ups and downs. Its cheerful main theme, accompanied by the
sparkling virtuoso passages and bright thrillers, is also coloured with elements of the folk
melos. According to the classicist principles, an apparent tranquillity at the end of the
movement only increases the future impression of an unstoppable rush and the final jump
into the abyss of silence. This peculiar wheel-dance gradually gives way and swings, jumps
and strains, in order to logically explode in the end.
The humorous Contradanza composed in Dubrovnik in 1933 (at that time Papandopulo
studied with the Best Croatian, Dubrovnik-born, composer of the early 20th century, Blagoje
Bersa) is inspired by the old English social dance of a vivacious but moderate tempo that
(although originating from the village, which explains the original English name the country
dance) was very popular among the French Aristocracy, but also among the local
townspeople in the 18th century, spreading as far as the Dubrovnik Republic region. The
couples approach each other, as described by the French name contredanse. Ludwig van
Beethoven composed a collection of 12 orchestral contradanzas (of the kind that Mozart also
composed), using the seventh one in the finale of his Symphony No. 3, Eroica. On the turn of
the 18th and 19th century, many popular songs in the contradanse form appeared in France
and some of them become integral parts of a new dance quadrille. The Old Dubrovnik
Contradanzas included the virtuoso variations of various mood and character. Their theme
constantly repeated, but always in a different register and with different accompaniment. In
his effective paraphrase, Papandopulo strictly obeys such manner, using the chant that
probably originated in the18th century Dubrovnik and was written down by Franjo Kuhač
(1834 – 1911), Croatian music theoretician and folklorist.
Papandopulo composed his virtuoso Scherzo fantastico in 1932 and dedicated it to the
famous Croatian pianist Antonija Geiger-Eichorn (1893 – 1971), the child prodigy, later the
student of Mikleš in Prague, who also studied with the famous Polish pianist Leopold
Godowsky in Vienna. In this probably most brilliant Croatian piano piece Papandopulo
gracefully blended the Istrian folklore resounding in the main theme with the polytonal and
polyrhythmic elements, which opens up new sound dimensions and culminates in the
fulminant finale in an almost Liszt-like diabolic manner.
10 x 1, Ten music impressions lasting one minute each is the last Papandopulo's piano
piece composed in 1989 (Tribunje), which Dalibor Cikojević first performed at the Osor
Muisc Evenings. It is an «impressionable, kaleidoscope synthesis of all Papandopulo's styles
and techniques that by its spontaneity perfectly reveals the composer's personality and the
playful and lively spirit full of optimism and humour» (Dalibor Cikojević). This peculiar,
apparently loose collage is nevertheless composed with a secret idea about the omnisuperior
completeness of the suite. The first miniature (Allegro moderato, 2/4) is characteristic of a
distinguished motive coloured with discrete jazz shades. The Adagio (3/4) is almost a tonal,
polyphony-wise skilfully composed imitation. The Vivace (5/16) is an effective,
chromatically inspiring sketch with somewhat vague folklore flavour. The Pesante (4/4) is a
Wagnerian-like powerful chorale also revealing the folk spirit – something we often find in
Papandopulo's output. Having reached its climax, the horizontal movement becomes vertical,
in the dodecaphonic structure of the sketch Allegro moderato (2/4). The slow waltz
(Allegretto, 3/4) is a jazz improvisation in a slightly contemplative mood. The Moderato (in
due, 6/8) is a modern singable two-part invention in the neo-classicist manner. The
Andantino (3/4) is full of the dramatically mysterious accentuations in the form of the
creeping sounds followed by the fast, small arabesques. The Allegro con brio (5/4, 2/4, 3/4,
7/4) contains plenty of interesting changes of measures, interrupted by a decisive recitative in
the unison octaves. The second part of the miniature (Alla Marcia, in a bit slower 2/4
measure) prepares an effective end of the piece.
Papandopulo composed his Partita (1931) in a typical, almost regular yet paradoxical, style
combination of the folklore neo-classicism. The first movement Popevka (Andante con moto
in 2/4 measure) is based on a singable folk theme, modulated in various tonalities. In the
place of the golden cut, the movement acquires a solemn, almost grandiose echo, ending in
the long expected, pastoral rest. The persistent motor rhythmic Igra (Allegro moderato, 5/4
measure) is opened by the Stravinsky-like neo-classical unison theme, which provokes an
unusual fugue with the powerful chord counter-accentuations in the left hand. The theme
chromatically moves in various tonality spaces, its expression gradually grows and it is heard
for the last time in the triumphant octaves. The movement coda naturally fades away and the
two powerful and energetic chords resound in the end. The Adagietto (4/4) is a singable and
elaborated meditation on a slightly folklore pastoral theme. In the final Toccata (Presto, 2/4),
the playful folklore motive spins within the professionally elaborated, extremely persistent
motor rhythm. The chromatics begins to acquire the decisive role, the augmented main time
in the octaves appears in the crucial moment and then everything slowly fades out in the
murky distance.
Papandopulo composed the Eight Etudes in 1956 and dedicated them to the renowned
Croatian piano pedagogue Svetislav Stančić (1895 – 1970) In this technically highly
demanding cycle, with frequent polytonality, the folklore influence is almost invisible. The
eight characteristic miniatures are composed in various styles, from the baroque toccata to
the contemporary dance forms. While the fast etudes are almost automatically motor
rhythmic, the slow ones conjure up various moods, whereat Papandopulo employed the
dodecaphonic technique in his own way. Pronounced harmony, aesthetics and rhythm of jazz
and pop music increase the spontaneity and the overall brilliance of this piano piece. A small
dose of a peculiar kind of irony is an unavoidable part of this fascinating musical
kaleidoscope.
D. Detoni