Page 234 - 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. 234
glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes | music criticism – yesterday and today
by Boris Ziherl, the patron of the concert, the composer Tomc attended the
first performance of his cantata “in plain clothes and sat unobtrusively in the
third row.”29 We should mention that Boris Ziherl was at the time a senior
Communist Party functionary, better known in this context as the former
director of Agitprop. Less well known is the fact that in 1955 and 1956 Zi-
herl was also occasionally active as a reporter for the two principal Sloveni-
an newspapers, Slovenski poročevalec (“The Slovenian Reporter”) and Lju-
bljanski dnevnik (“The Ljubljana Daily”), and thus had good connections
with both. Otherwise, as pointed out by Aleš Gabrič, one of the leading ex-
perts on cultural-political conditions in Slovenia after the Second World
War, Ziherl was apparently
the most orthodox of all [in the party leadership at the time], someone
who at every step saw risks of divergence from the party line in artis-
tic works and in people who, for whatever reason, deviated from the de-
clared political orientation.30
The concert was a triumphant success. The audience, which filled every
last seat in the Union Hall, rewarded the performers and composer with tu-
multuous applause. Despite a few minor failings in the choir’s interpreta-
tion of the work, the critics reporting on the event agreed unanimously
that, as Gregorc puts it, “the choir was fully equal to the demands placed on
the ensemble by Tomc’s setting.”31 Writing in Slovenski poročevalec, Bogdan
Pogačnik, who would later publish a monograph on one of Slovenia’s best
known vocal ensembles, Slovenski oktet (Slovenian Octet), even referred to
the “fine-sounding intermezzos of sacred music”.32 Zmaga Kumer, later to
become one of Slovenia’s leading ethnomusicologists, noted enthusiastical-
ly in her review of the concert that
the creative power of Tomc’s artistic personality, his original musical
expression and his tireless activity place him among the most promi-
nent contemporary Slovenian composers and it appears likely that his
name will feature in many more concert programmes in the future.33
29 Matjaž Kmecl, “Vrtičkarjevi zimski dnevi,” Sobotna priloga, Delo 42, no. 12 (2000):
38.
30 Aleš Gabrič, “Zajčeva Požgana trava v očeh partijskih ideologov,” Nova revija 13, no.
147–148 (1994): 168.
31 Gregorc, Jubilejni koncert ob desetletnici Akademskega pevskega zbora, 4.
32 BP, “Pojó, pojó, da še nikdar tako …,” 5.
33 Zmaga Kumer, Matija Tomc. Koncert ob desetletnici zbora in v počastitev stoletnice
rojstva Antona Aškerca, Ljubljana, 12 March 1956 [a concert programme of the cho-
ir APZ Tone Tomšič].
234
by Boris Ziherl, the patron of the concert, the composer Tomc attended the
first performance of his cantata “in plain clothes and sat unobtrusively in the
third row.”29 We should mention that Boris Ziherl was at the time a senior
Communist Party functionary, better known in this context as the former
director of Agitprop. Less well known is the fact that in 1955 and 1956 Zi-
herl was also occasionally active as a reporter for the two principal Sloveni-
an newspapers, Slovenski poročevalec (“The Slovenian Reporter”) and Lju-
bljanski dnevnik (“The Ljubljana Daily”), and thus had good connections
with both. Otherwise, as pointed out by Aleš Gabrič, one of the leading ex-
perts on cultural-political conditions in Slovenia after the Second World
War, Ziherl was apparently
the most orthodox of all [in the party leadership at the time], someone
who at every step saw risks of divergence from the party line in artis-
tic works and in people who, for whatever reason, deviated from the de-
clared political orientation.30
The concert was a triumphant success. The audience, which filled every
last seat in the Union Hall, rewarded the performers and composer with tu-
multuous applause. Despite a few minor failings in the choir’s interpreta-
tion of the work, the critics reporting on the event agreed unanimously
that, as Gregorc puts it, “the choir was fully equal to the demands placed on
the ensemble by Tomc’s setting.”31 Writing in Slovenski poročevalec, Bogdan
Pogačnik, who would later publish a monograph on one of Slovenia’s best
known vocal ensembles, Slovenski oktet (Slovenian Octet), even referred to
the “fine-sounding intermezzos of sacred music”.32 Zmaga Kumer, later to
become one of Slovenia’s leading ethnomusicologists, noted enthusiastical-
ly in her review of the concert that
the creative power of Tomc’s artistic personality, his original musical
expression and his tireless activity place him among the most promi-
nent contemporary Slovenian composers and it appears likely that his
name will feature in many more concert programmes in the future.33
29 Matjaž Kmecl, “Vrtičkarjevi zimski dnevi,” Sobotna priloga, Delo 42, no. 12 (2000):
38.
30 Aleš Gabrič, “Zajčeva Požgana trava v očeh partijskih ideologov,” Nova revija 13, no.
147–148 (1994): 168.
31 Gregorc, Jubilejni koncert ob desetletnici Akademskega pevskega zbora, 4.
32 BP, “Pojó, pojó, da še nikdar tako …,” 5.
33 Zmaga Kumer, Matija Tomc. Koncert ob desetletnici zbora in v počastitev stoletnice
rojstva Antona Aškerca, Ljubljana, 12 March 1956 [a concert programme of the cho-
ir APZ Tone Tomšič].
234
