Page 219 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 219
lucijan marija škerjanc: critic of the jutro newspaper from 1927 to 1942
and unable to tell good from bad. In this regard, following a 1928 concert
by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ernst Kunwald (1868–
1939), he wrote that a good part of the Ljubljana audience was convinced it
was listening to the famous Berlin Philharmonic, and although the concert
programme was adapted to the so-called popular concerts with which the
orchestra was touring Yugoslavia, the conductor could be accused of “the
vices and habits of the temperamental and affected old-style kapellmeisters
from the era of Austrian and German military orchestras.”18 Regarding the
error of the audience, he writes:
This blunder was also fatal for that section of the audience which, while
it is accustomed to observing our home-grown musical endeavours
with a critical eye, on this occasion succumbed to euphoric adoration of
a company [the Berlin Philharmonic] which it had never had the oppor-
tunity to experience at close quarters.19
It is also worth mentioning Škerjanc’s reaction to a concert by the Mu-
sic Teachers’ Choir, which was considered an excellent vocal ensemble and
one of the leading performers of new works by Slovene composers, some-
thing greatly appreciated by Škerjanc. He wrote:
[T]hat this is the only choir in the country today that is willing to tack-
le the most challenging and least gratifying choral works and does so
very successfully. [...] Particularly interesting was Kogoj’s highly com-
plicated song Vrabci in strašilo [‘The sparrows and the scarecrow’], in
which the choir was able to demonstrate its great musical intelligence,
since this unusual, inventive piece contains difficulties that are practi-
cally insurmountable.20
As a connoisseur of art song, Škerjanc was well equipped to review the
performance by the famed Slovene opera and concert singer Pavla Lovše,
who in 1929, on her return from a tour of the United States of America,
appeared in front of a Ljubljana audience with a programme of Ameri-
can songs. While Škerjanc’s review praised the singer’s remarkable artistic
qualities, he was less forgiving about the programme, which consisted of
established works from the American concert stage:
18 L. M. Š., “Koncert Berlinskega simfoničnega orkestra,” Jutro 9, no. 226 (26 Septem-
ber 1928): 7, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-KH5AGXAN.
19 Ibid.
20 L. M. Š., “Koncert pevskega zbora učiteljstva UJU v Ljubljani,” Jutro 10, no. 8 (9 Jan-
uary 1929): 3–4, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-8VAZ2NXV.
219
and unable to tell good from bad. In this regard, following a 1928 concert
by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ernst Kunwald (1868–
1939), he wrote that a good part of the Ljubljana audience was convinced it
was listening to the famous Berlin Philharmonic, and although the concert
programme was adapted to the so-called popular concerts with which the
orchestra was touring Yugoslavia, the conductor could be accused of “the
vices and habits of the temperamental and affected old-style kapellmeisters
from the era of Austrian and German military orchestras.”18 Regarding the
error of the audience, he writes:
This blunder was also fatal for that section of the audience which, while
it is accustomed to observing our home-grown musical endeavours
with a critical eye, on this occasion succumbed to euphoric adoration of
a company [the Berlin Philharmonic] which it had never had the oppor-
tunity to experience at close quarters.19
It is also worth mentioning Škerjanc’s reaction to a concert by the Mu-
sic Teachers’ Choir, which was considered an excellent vocal ensemble and
one of the leading performers of new works by Slovene composers, some-
thing greatly appreciated by Škerjanc. He wrote:
[T]hat this is the only choir in the country today that is willing to tack-
le the most challenging and least gratifying choral works and does so
very successfully. [...] Particularly interesting was Kogoj’s highly com-
plicated song Vrabci in strašilo [‘The sparrows and the scarecrow’], in
which the choir was able to demonstrate its great musical intelligence,
since this unusual, inventive piece contains difficulties that are practi-
cally insurmountable.20
As a connoisseur of art song, Škerjanc was well equipped to review the
performance by the famed Slovene opera and concert singer Pavla Lovše,
who in 1929, on her return from a tour of the United States of America,
appeared in front of a Ljubljana audience with a programme of Ameri-
can songs. While Škerjanc’s review praised the singer’s remarkable artistic
qualities, he was less forgiving about the programme, which consisted of
established works from the American concert stage:
18 L. M. Š., “Koncert Berlinskega simfoničnega orkestra,” Jutro 9, no. 226 (26 Septem-
ber 1928): 7, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-KH5AGXAN.
19 Ibid.
20 L. M. Š., “Koncert pevskega zbora učiteljstva UJU v Ljubljani,” Jutro 10, no. 8 (9 Jan-
uary 1929): 3–4, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-8VAZ2NXV.
219
