New Year’s Eve 2021 Ball Concert - Thursday 30 December - Concert Hall Vatroslav Lisinski - Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra - Maestro Dawid Runtz - Soprano Katerina Mina - Tenor Roko Radovan
Across Europe the pandemic has laid waste to much artistic endeavour as it wreaks havoc, leaving disruption in its path. Vaccinations are the order of the day and in some countries such as Austria, they have to be accompanied with a PCR test if you want to visit the Opera House. But not in Zagreb!
The annual New Year’s Eve Ball Concert was a real highlight at the Vatroslav Lisinksi Concert Hall, a 2000-seat auditorium similar to the Royal Festival Hall, but without boxes. Last year had seen not only the pandemic damaging the artistic environment in Croatia, but also an earthquake causing damage to the Concert Hall, the home of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra. In its 150th anniversary year, this outstanding orchestra adopted the slogan «Music always finds a way». Music did indeed continue in Zagreb, and 2021 culminated in the most beautiful and glamorous end of year concert in a fully packed concert hall.
Under the management of its flamboyant Director, Mirko Boch, and the current Mayor of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomašević, the Orchestra has gone from strength to strength and performs internationally throughout the world. The reputation of this hidden gem of an orchestra is further enhanced by the appointment in the summer of 2021 of the young, 29-year-old Polish Chief Conductor, Dawid Runtz. The meteoric rise of this star conductor was justified by his authoritative control of the music, orchestra and singers as demonstrated by the New Year’s Eve concert. And what a concert it was.
With the conductor playing to his strengths, Johann Strauss was at the core of the first half of the programme, with two of the programme’s most familiar pieces, the Tritsch-Tratsch Polka Op. 214 and the Blue Danube Waltz Op. 314, setting the electric sparks flying for the evening’s entertainment. I have rarely heard an orchestral performance with such drive, coupled with rhythmical sensitivity and richness. The strings were on top form accompanied by some wonderful harp playing by Mirjam Lucev Debanić. She was also at the core of the aria «Pace, pace mio Dio» from Verdi’s opera La Forza del Destino, sang by the incredibly talented British-Cypriot soprano Katerina Mina.
This thrilling soprano performed four arias in the second part of the programme, starting with a beautiful rendition of Franz Lehár’s «Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss» from the operetta Giuditta with her magnetic voice soaring round the auditorium as she reached the aria’s overwhelming climax. In Verdi’s «Pace, pace mio Dio» Katerina’s dramatic soprano showed off a sublimed intensity matched with a sophistication as the brushstrokes of her voice provided a kaleidoscope of sound crackling with electricity. Bizet’s Habanera from Carmen was a real surprise, as the vocal depth of this mezzo-soprano role, were no stranger to Katerina’s range and timbre.
Excitingly, the concert ended with Brindisi, the famous duet from Verdi’s opera La Traviata, where Katerina Mina was joined by Roko Radovan, a young Croatian tenor from the Zagreb Academy of Music, whose strong sound boasts well for a great career ahead. You would be hard pressed to find a better rendition of the Brindisi by both singers, the orchestra and particularly the choir who were outstanding throughout the evening. The glasses of champagne that were offered to the principals added real fun to the evening’s entertainment. The audience loved it and clapped along to this piece and others as the conductor Dawid Runtz would allow. He made sure that this spectacular concert raised more than a glass of welcome spirit to the New Year ahead, conducting the whole concert without a score. Music indeed «did find a way».
