TRIO RITRATTO DELL’AMORE (Slovenia)
Cveto Kobal, flute
Volodja Balžalorsky, violin
Nedka Petkowa, harpsichord
Spored:
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767), Trio sonata in C minor
Johann Sebastian Bach, (1685–1750), Aria from Goldberg’s variations
Aldo Kumar (1954), Tantadruj’s wishes
Igor Krivokapić (1965), Leggiero ma con calore from Pecunia
Janez Matičič (1926–2022), Preludium and Aria from Suite No. 3 for piano (arr. for harpsichord by Nedka Petkowa)
Nenad Firšt (1964), Something Wild
Jacques Ibert (1890–1962), Deux interludes
The ensemble has worked together since their first public appearance with baroque period programme at the Rogaška Musical Summer Festival in 1994. Since then, the trio has played regularly in Slovenia, Austria and Croatia, also as a guest at various international festivals. Their concert at Ptuj Castle in 1997 was recorded by TV Slovenia; while Radio Slovenia recorded their performance at the Musica Aeterna festival in Kamnik. Lately, the ensemble has been devoting more of their programme to contemporary music, performing for the first time in Slovenia the compositions by György Ligeti, Jacques Ibert, Igor Krivokapič and Igor Kopecki. Rich individual experience combines the members into an attractive symbiosis that incites Slovene composers, particularly of the younger generation, to write new pieces for this interesting instrumental constellation. The name of the trio is taken from a concert by Francois Couperin and symbolises the link between the art in baroque times and contemporary musical creativity.
Cveto Kobal is considered to be one of the most prominent Slovenian flautists. He currently teaches flute and chamber music at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Pedagogy, Music department. He began his career as a member of the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra (1981–1983). During 1988–1990 and 1992–1988, he was the solo flautist in the Radio Televizija Slovenija Symphony Orchestra. From 1998 until 2000, he directed serious music programs on Slovenian national television. As a soloist, he has given concerts with orchestras (the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Televizija Slovenija Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Orchestra of Klagenfurt, Tartini Orchestra of Trieste, Musikhochschule Orchestra of Graz, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra). On flute recitals and as a member of various chamber groups, he has appeared in Slovenia, former Yugoslavia, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Israel. He has recorded for radio and TV stations and appeared in various CDs as a soloist.
Volodja Balžalorsky is a renowned Slovenian violinist. Over the past four decades, he has established an international reputation as an original and compelling artist who has performed classical and contemporary music repertoire in many international music festivals and concert series throughout Europe, North America and Asia, and has recorded for numerous radio and TV stations. Volodja has been awarded numerous international music prizes for his artistic achievements. He is particularly active in the field of chamber music, working with many international groups and ensembles. He is a member of the renowned Amael Piano Trio. In 2015, he started to play in a duo with the acclaimed Serbian pianist Aleksandar Serdar, and in 2017, with the noted Dutch pianist Peter Caelen. Several composers have dedicated their compositions to Volodja, who also performed them as a “first performance”. He is also considered a promoter of Slovenian violin and chamber music abroad. Volodja is also immensely committed to musical education as a violin teacher. In 1996, Volodja Balžalorsky was invited to teach violin and chamber music at the Academy of Music of the University of Ljubljana, where he has been a full-time professor since 2009, combining his own pedagogical methodology and experience with knowledge acquired from his outstanding professors Igor Ozim, Grigory Zhislin, Galina Barinova, Josef Suk, and all members of Amadeus Quartet, as well as with his experience as a concert performer on the international stage.
The acclaimed harpsichordist Nedka Petkowa regularly performs as a soloist and as a member of various chamber ensembles in Slovenia and Europe. After studying piano with L. Enčeva and N. Evrov at the Academy of Music in Sofia and studying musicology in St. Petersburg, she graduated in 1990 from the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. In the 1993/94 season, she was an active participant in harpsichord master classes at the International Summer Academy of Early Music in Innsbruck with prof. J. Sonnleitner. In 1997-2000, she continued her harpsichord studies at Winterthur Zürich College of Music with the same professor and at the School Cantorum Basiliensis-Research Institute for Early Music in Basel. In 1980s, Petkowa was a member of the Studio for the Recorder in Ljubljana. As a harpsichordist, she has recorded for the music archive of Radio Slovenia. She performs as a soloist with solo recitals and in chamber ensembles, e.g. in a duet with violinist V. Balžalorsky. ZKP RTV Slovenija published her CD with works by composers G. Frescobaldi, F. Couperin, A. Forqueray, J. S. Bach and G. F. Händel called Finding Lost Time. As a harpsichordist, she has also performed with the chamber ensembles Slovenicum and Carnium.
Admission free.
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