Dejan Lazić (piano), Muenchner Rundfunkorchester and Ivan Repušić

The folk music of the Croatian peninsula of Istria is as characteristic as it is extraordinary. Its melodies, harmonies and rhythms are unique; the sopila, a traditional shawm instrument, as well as choral singing and folk dances express them sonorously. The music, with its asymmetrical rhythms, is based on the so-called "pentatonic Istrian scale", which consists of minor and major seconds and is thus clearly different from the other musical styles of Croatia. Locals have researched, collected and notated this music - and numerous non-Istrian musicians and composers have been fascinated by it; among them the Croatian composer Natko Devčić for his "Istrian Suite" for orchestra (1946) or the young Croatian pianist and composer Dejan Lazić for his "Concerto in Istrian Style" for piano and orchestra op. 18 (2014 / 2021) or his "Alterations on the Istrian Folk Hymn" op. 29 (2022). - This CD by BR-KLASSIK presents these works for the first time in studio recordings from November 2022 with Dejan Lazić at the piano and the Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Ivan Repušić in exemplary interpretations. Natko Devčić was one of Croatia's most important composers and music educators, who left a lasting mark on subsequent generations of musicians. His creative work expresses the attachment to the Croatian national and folk tradition as well as the search for a specific musical expression. His most lasting success as a composer came with the "Istrian Suite" for orchestra of 1946, which uses Istrian folk music as a source of inspiration and as a link between Slavic late Romanticism and the avant-garde. Dejan Lazić premiered his "Concerto in Istrian Style" for piano and orchestra, op. 18, at the Aspen Music Festival on July 23, 2014. While he was "Artist in Residence" of the Munich Radio Orchestra in Munich and got Ivan Repušić interested in a recording of the concerto, he revised the work. The present CD presents the concerto in its revised version of 2021 - The five-movement piano concerto is closely related to Istrian music - its melodies, harmonies and rhythms - and processes the "Istrian scale" as well as the typical two-part melodies in thirds. The concerto's central movement is an extended solo cadenza in which Lazić, who has presented cadenzas for piano concertos by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven or arranged Brahms' Violin Concerto op. 77 for piano and orchestra, demonstrates his diverse experience in this field. Lazić's "Alterations on the Istrian Folk Hymn," op. 29, was written for the present CD and is dedicated to the Munich Radio Orchestra and its principal conductor Ivan Repušić. In it, the composer dealt with the song "Draga nam je zemlja" recorded by Ivan Matetić Ronjgov, which was and is sung as a folk anthem in Istria, and took its melody as the basis of theme and twelve variations with coda for orchestra.

• Devčić: Istrian Suite
• Lazic: Alterations on the Istrian Folk Anthem
• Lazic: Concerto in Istrian Style
• Ronjgov: Istrian Folk Anthem