A Celebration of Music with Well Renowned Names
Renowned Croatian and foreign classical musicians will mark this year’s St. Mark’s Festival. From now until 15 May, the festival's events will be taking place in the churches and concert halls of the Upper and Lower Towns.
From now until 15 May, the churches and concert halls of the Lower and Upper Towns will host the events of the 11th Festival of St. Mark. The festival is dedicated to chamber and sacral music. The audiences will enjoy performances by some of the best musicians from Croatia and abroad, as they have indeed every year so far. On 8 May, I Solisti di Zagreb will play in St. Catherine's Church in the Upper Town and will accompany a festival’s regular, mezzo-soprano Marijana Lipovšek. Besides some of Mozart’s pieces, the program of the evening will feature Amando Ivančić's 18th century Symphony in G-Major. The Croatian composer's opus includes 21 masses written for various occasions. On 10 May, American pianist Antony Spiri will play at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in the Lower Town. Two days later, on 12 May, the Studio Bajsić Hall of Croatian Radio Television will host the Haydn Quartet Vienna and I Solisti di Zagreb, with a guitar solo by Serkan Ağir from Turkey. On the penultimate day of the festival, 14 May, the Symphonic Orchestra of Croatian Radio Television and soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic will delight the audience in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall. The finale of the festival on 15 May will take place in the recently renovated 16th century gothic church of St. Mark in the Upper Town.
The church has historically been the venue of major religious and social events and has played an important role in the life of the free royal town of Gradec - the heart of the historical nucleus of Zagreb. Many prominent citizens have had votive altars built in the church. The area in front of the church was once home to an open air market, as well as the town's biggest fair, which happened every year on 25 April, the feast of St. Mark. Gradec and Kaptol in the Upper Town formed the urban center of the then Zagreb, before the construction of the Lower Town started in the 19th century.
The modern festival of chamber and sacral music opened on the feast of St. Mark's with a concert by the Oratory Choir and soloists of St. Mark's Church, and will be closed by the soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the West East Divan Orchestra. The rest of the festival’s impressive lineup includes the soloists, choir and orchestra of the cathedral in Salzburg and guitarist Krešimir Bedek.