Artistic director: Volodja Balžalorsky

Trio Ritratto dell’ amore

Cveto Kobal, flute – Volodja Balžalorsky, violin – Nedka Petkowa, harpsichord

• What: Chamber music
• When: Wednesday, 13.7.2022 from 20.30 to 22.30

• Where: Atrium of ZRC SAZU, Novi trg 2, Ljubljana
• No entrance fee –

Free tickets can be picked up the last hour before the concert at the entrance to the ZRC SAZU Atrium. The number of places is limited, so we advise you to arrive a little earlier.
More about the concert

Program:

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) – Trio sonata in c minor

Largo, Vivace, Andante, Allegro

Johann Sebastian Bach, (1685-1750): Aria (Goldberg variations)

Aldo Kumar: Tantadru’s wishes (for flute solo)

Igor Krivokapić  – Drobižki

Janez Matičič (1926-2022): Prelude and Aria (Suite No.3 for piano 1961)
World premiere: Paris, June 1962 Livia Rev, piano
Arr. for harpsichord: Nedka Petkowa

Nenad Firšt: Something wild (for violin solo)

Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) – Deux interludes

Trio Ritratto dell’amore is formed by flutist Cveto Kobal, violinist Volodja Balzalorsky and harpsichordist Nedka Petkowa.

In this setup the ensemble has been working since their first public appearance in 1994 with baroque period programme at the Rogaska Musical Summer Festival. From then on the Trio has played regularly in Slovenia, Austria and Croatia and also as a guest at various international festivals. Their concert in the Ptuj Castle in 1997 was recorded by TV Slovenia; Radio Slovenia recorded their performance at the Musica Aeterna festival in Kamnik.

Lately the ensemble has devoted more and more of their programme to the contemporary music. So the first performances of compositions by György Ligeti, Jacques Ibert, Igor Krivokapic and Igor Kopecki were presented in the Slovene cultural sphere by this Trio.

Rich individual experience ties its members into an attracting symbiosis that incites Slovene composers, particularly of the younger generation, to write new pieces for this interesting instrument combination. The Trios new name cited above, is taken from a concert by Francois Couperin and symbolises the link between the art in baroque times and the most recent musical creativity.

CVETO KOBAL, flute

Cveto Kobal is considered to be one of the most prominent representatives of Slovenian flutists.

He currently teaches flute and chamber music at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Pedagogy, Music department.

He began his career as member of Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra (1981 – 1983). Between 1988 – 1990 and 1992 – 1988 he was solo flautist in the Slovene Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra. From 1998 until 2000 he directed serious music programs at the National Slovene Television. As a soloist he gave concerts with orchestras (the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovene Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Music Orchestra of Klagenfurt, the Tartini Orchestra of Trieste, the Musikhochschule Orchestra of Graz, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra). On flute recitals and as a member of various chamber groups he appeared in Slovenia, former Yugoslavia, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Israel. He recorded for Radio and TV stations and as a soloist appeared in various CD’s.

VOLODJA BALŽALORSKY, violin (www.balzalorsky.net)

Volodja Balžalorsky is 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 Radio-TV stations in Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Iran, China, United States and in Slovenia.
Several CDs and digital albums were released by labels such as HRT Orfei, Croatia; Animato, Germany; Eroica classical recordings, USA; Helidon, ZKP RTV SLO, and Cantabel Productions, Slovenia. His digital albums, mostly live recordings, are available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal and other digital outlets.
For his artistic achievements, Volodja has been awarded numerous international music prizes.
Volodja Balžalorsky is particularly active in the field of chamber music. He works with many international groups and ensembles. He is a member of the renowned Amael Piano Trio (www.amaeltrio.com). In 2015 he started to play in Duo with renowned Serbian pianist Aleksandar Serdar and in 2017 with noted Dutch pianist Peter Caelen.
Several composers dedicated their compositions to Volodja, who also performed them as a “first performance”.
He is also considered as a promoter of Slovenian violin and chamber music abroad.

In addition to his artistic activities, Volodja Balžalorsky is distinguished by his immense commitment to musical education activities 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 professor” since 2009.

As a violin teacher in his rich, more than 40 years of pedagogical work, he combines his own pedagogical methodology and experience, with violin knowledge acquired from his outstanding professors such as Igor Ozim, Grigory Zhislin, Galina Barinova, Josef Suk, and all members of Amadeus quartet, as well as with his experience of a concert performer on the international stage.

NEDKA PETKOWA – harpsichord

Harpsichordist Nedka Petkowa regularly performs as a soloist and as a member of various chamber ensembles in Slovenia and in the wider European area. After studying piano with prof. L. Enčeva and prof. N. Evrov at the Academy of Music in Sofia and after 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 the Winterthur Zürich College of Music with the same professor at the School Cantorum Basiliensis-Research Institute for Early Music in Basel.
In the 1980s, N. Petkowa was a member of the “Studio for the Beaked Flute” in Ljubljana. As a harpsichordist, she 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 a CD with works by composers G. Frescobaldi, F. Couperin, A. Forqueray, J. S. Bach and G. F. Händel entitled “Finding Lost Time”. As a harpsichordist, she also performed with the chamber ensembles “Slovenicum” and “Carnium”.

His students have won many national and international first prizes and awards.

Festival Spectrum is supported by:

MESTNA OBČINA LJUBLJANA

MINISTRY OF CULTURE of the Reblic of Slovenia

Imago Foundation as a co-producer of the July part of the festival Spectrum