Page 293 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2019. Vloga nacionalnih opernih gledališč v 20. in 21. stoletju - The Role of National Opera Houses in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 3
P. 293
oi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-7055-50-4.291-302
Václav Talich at the Slovene Provincial
Theatre in Ljubljana
Jernej Weiss
Univerza v Ljubljani / Univerza v Mariboru
University of Ljubljana / University of Maribor
Viewed from today’s perspective, the start of the second decade of Slove-
ne concert and opera performance in the twentieth century was an extra-
ordinary period. Two “novices” took turns on the conductor’s rostrum: the
25-year-old Czech Václav Talich and his Hungarian colleague Friderik Rei-
ner, half a decade younger. Both would later become world-famous condu-
ctors: the former a specialist in Slavonic and, particularly, Czech compo-
sers of the Romantic era, the latter a widely acknowledged Wagnerian star.
Talich’s brief period of involvement in the Slovene Provincial Theat-
re in Ljubljana, lasting a mere two seasons, was of course inseparably tied
to his position with the Slovenian Philharmonic, founded in 1908.1 The in-
creasingly urgent question of amateur symphonic performance in Slovenia,
and the musical-dramatic production that depended on it, had encouraged
the realisation of decades-old plans to establish the first Slovene professi-
onal orchestra: the Orkester Slovenske filharmonije (Slovenian Philharmo-
nic Orchestra).
The Glasbena matica music society and the existing Ljubljanska
društvena godba (originally a military orchestra) had agreed at a meeting
on 16 April 1908 to advertise for various positions in the orchestra, inclu-
ding that of conductor.2 Candidates were sought in Vienna, among other
places. The board of the Glasbena matica sent an invitation “to all suita-
1 Metoda Kokole, “Václav Talich and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra (1908–
1912),” Arti musices 27 (1997), 2: 173–93.
2 Ibid., 175.
291
Václav Talich at the Slovene Provincial
Theatre in Ljubljana
Jernej Weiss
Univerza v Ljubljani / Univerza v Mariboru
University of Ljubljana / University of Maribor
Viewed from today’s perspective, the start of the second decade of Slove-
ne concert and opera performance in the twentieth century was an extra-
ordinary period. Two “novices” took turns on the conductor’s rostrum: the
25-year-old Czech Václav Talich and his Hungarian colleague Friderik Rei-
ner, half a decade younger. Both would later become world-famous condu-
ctors: the former a specialist in Slavonic and, particularly, Czech compo-
sers of the Romantic era, the latter a widely acknowledged Wagnerian star.
Talich’s brief period of involvement in the Slovene Provincial Theat-
re in Ljubljana, lasting a mere two seasons, was of course inseparably tied
to his position with the Slovenian Philharmonic, founded in 1908.1 The in-
creasingly urgent question of amateur symphonic performance in Slovenia,
and the musical-dramatic production that depended on it, had encouraged
the realisation of decades-old plans to establish the first Slovene professi-
onal orchestra: the Orkester Slovenske filharmonije (Slovenian Philharmo-
nic Orchestra).
The Glasbena matica music society and the existing Ljubljanska
društvena godba (originally a military orchestra) had agreed at a meeting
on 16 April 1908 to advertise for various positions in the orchestra, inclu-
ding that of conductor.2 Candidates were sought in Vienna, among other
places. The board of the Glasbena matica sent an invitation “to all suita-
1 Metoda Kokole, “Václav Talich and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra (1908–
1912),” Arti musices 27 (1997), 2: 173–93.
2 Ibid., 175.
291
