Page 323 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

The Slavko Osterc Ensemble (1961–1981): The Principal Promoter of the Creativity …
concert and by publishing sheet music). Nevertheless, many members of the
Ensemble could see the necessity of supporting contemporary Slovene musi-
cal creativity and helped cover the costs out of their own pockets.

Review of the most important appearances outside Yugoslavia
A review of the most important appearances by the Ensemble outside Yu-
goslavia reveals the following. In April 1965 the Ensemble accepted an in-
vitation from the Arte nova association in Trieste and thus performed in
Italy for the first time. On 12 March 1965, the violinist and composer Kar-
lo Sancin, who was also a radio presenter, gave the following report for Ra-
dio Trst A: “The ensemble performed the extremely demanding programme
with considerable artistic skill and deserves all recognition for its remarkable
performance, as do all three soloists […] and the conductor Ivo Petrić.” The
11
tradition of performing in Italy, Slovenia’s western neighbour, continued
until 1977, with at least one performance every year except 1970. These per-
formances were for the most part covered by the local press, with extensive
reports and photographs and almost universally positive reviews, with the
ensemble playing and individual soloists singled out for particular praise.
The Ensemble’s performances in West and East Germany were almost
as frequent as those in Italy. The Ensemble first performed in the Federal
Republic of Germany in March 1967. Interestingly, it was not until 1975, after
a series of visits to West Germany, that the Ensemble visited East Germany
for the first time, with appearances in Leipzig, Potsdam and Berlin. It thus
appears that Petrić’s ideological orientation was primarily westward-lean-
ing, and therefore diverged from mainstream Yugoslav doctrine of the
time, which was (specially in the first years after the WW2) influenced by
Soviet ideology and thus mainly eastward-leaning. The ensemble also re-
ceived praise from German critics and, for the most part, its performanc-
es were reviewed positively. A series of reviews confirm the Ensemble’s ar-
12
tistic quality and continuous excellence at the highest level of performance.
11 Karlo Sancin, Report for Radio Trst A, 12 March 1965. See also: Štular, Glasbeno delo
Ansambla Slavko Osterc, 6. All foreign performances are listed in: Štular, pp. 21–87.
12 In an article published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung we read: “Zeitlich über-
sichtlich disponierte substilste Klangforgänge geben eine zarte dialogisierende Poesie,
eine Lyrik, die nichts mit einem lyrischen Tenor, dafur um so mehr mit jener Lyrik der
fremden Klange zu tun hat” [Chronologically well-organised, subtle sound process-
es create a delicate, dialogical poetry, a lyricism that has nothing in common with
the lyric tenor but is much more aligned with the lyricism of foreign sounds]. Rein-
hart Öhlschlagel, “Kroatisch – slowenische Avantgarde,” Frankfurter Musica viva,
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 March 1967.

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