I was so excited to hear this concert review of my November solo recital at Ljubljana Castle by Mihael Paš, which appeared in the Glabeni utrip radio programme on 12th November 2014:

At the 4th concert of this year’s Sounds of the Classics cycle, held at the Estates Hall of Ljubljana Castle, the audience was enthralled by classical guitarist Uros Baric. The musician captivated us instantly with his performance of the opening piece – his own arrangement of the 6th Lute Sonata by Giovanni Zamboni – and won us over with his sensitive voice leading and softly stated melodic lines winding their ways along with a refined expression of harmonic texture.

During his early studies Uros Baric won several top prizes in international competitions for young musicians, including the 1st prize at Concorso Europeo di Chitarra Classica »Città di Gorizia« in 2004 and the 2nd prize at Concorso Internazionale »Città di San Bartolomeo al mare« in 2005. His repertoire includes classical music from the Renaissance to 21st-century classical music, but he is equally attracted to other musical styles such as pop, jazz and Latin American music. As a student of the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Uroš also took courses on basso continuo with Luciano Contini (Italy) and jazz guitar lessons with Martin Kelner (Austria).

Baric’s remarkable feeling for melodic line leading resulted in a brilliant musical evening. We could appreciate his precisely articulated voice leading in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 998.

By the end of the following piece, Variations on a Theme by Mozart, Op. 9, by Fernando Sor, we were fully aware of witnessing a performance of a young and yet mature and very promising musician. The guitarist executed the technically demanding passages with an impressive ease, which enabled him to focus completely on melodic phrasing.

The first part of the concert was concluded with the well-known and frequently performed “Olive Trees in the Snow” by Slovenian composer Aldo Kumar, which achieved a whole new dimension in the young virtuoso’s performance.

The audience was enchanted again by the guitarist’s performance of the Third Sonata by Manuel María Ponce. Even though the remarkably delicate execution of the first movement, “Allegro moderato”, immediately attracted the audience’s attention, the slow second movement, “Canción”, was nonetheless captivating, revealing once more the guitarist’s wonderful musicality.

The final movement, “Allegro non troppo”, was filled with expressiveness and emotion and yet fully under control of the performer. We witnessed an impressively implemented interpretation in which the musician completey gave himself over to feeling, and yet nothing was left to chance.

The traditional Irish song “Londonderry Air”, in the arrangement for guitar by Toru Takemitsu, a contemporary Japanese composer, offered a colourful mixture of the simple and the more challenging, of the traditional and the new, with the latter being very discreetly incorporated into this over 300 year-old melody, thus giving it a new, more colourful, expressive depth.

The “Six Balkan Miniatures” by Dusan Bogdanovic offered an effective conclusion to the recital. Each movement, the lively “Jutranje kolo”, the melancholic “Zalopojka”, the powerfully expressive “Vranjanka”, the vigorous “Makedonsko kolo”, the passionately emotional “Siroko” and the final dance movement “Sitni vez”, was played with an extraordinarily expressive dimension.

Enthusiastic applause was followed by two encores, one of which was a lovely tune, “Microphone Fever”, by American composer Rick Ruskin.

 

The original (Slovene) version

Na 4. koncertu iz cikla Zvoki klasike nas je v Stanovski dvorani Ljubljanskega gradu navdušil kitarist Uroš Barič, ki je prepričal s svojim tenkočutnim vodenjem melodične linije, ki se je vila ob lahkotno ubrani in tenkočutno podani harmonski spremljavi.

To se je odrazilo že v prvi točki, ko je kitarist izvedel svojo priredbo Sonate št. 6 Giovannija Zambonija (it). Uroš Barič je namreč nagrajenec številnih tekmovanj, med njimi omenimo prvo nagrado na Evropskem kitarskem tekmovanju za klasično kitaro v Gorici leta 2004 in drugo nagrado na mednarodnem tekmovanju v San Bartolomeu leta 2005. Njegov repertoar vključuje dela vseh zgodovinskih obdobij, od renesanse do sodobne klasične glasbe, samozavestno pa se preizkuša tudi v svetu popularne in latinskoameriške glasbe ter jazza. Že kot študent se je namreč izpopolnjeval na področju stare glasbe pri Lucianu Continiju (it) in obiskoval ure jazzovske kitare pri Martinu Kelnerju (at).

Baričev izjemen občutek za vodenje melodije nam je pričaral izvrsten glasbeni večer. Artikulativno precizno vodenje glasov smo lahko občudovali v Fugi s kataloško oznako 998 Johanna Sebastiana Bacha.

Slišali smo interpretacijo Variacij na temo iz Mozartove opere Čarobna piščal Fernanda Sora ter se prepričali, da pred nami stoji sicer mladi, vendar že povsem zrel in zelo obetajoč glasbenik. Kitarist je povsem lahkotno izvajal tehnično zelo zahtevne pasaže in tako je lahko vso svojo pozornost posvetil vodenju melodične linije.

Prvi del je sklenila dobro znana in pogosto izvajana skladba »Oljke v snegu« slovenskega skladatelja Alda Kumarja. Izpod prstov mladega virtuoza je ta znana slovenska skladba zazvenela v novi razsežnosti.

Očarala je tudi Sonata št. 3 Manuela Maríje Ponceja. Navkljub zelo rahločutno izvedenemu prvemu stavku z oznako »Allegro moderato«, je počasni drugi stavek z naslovom »Canción« (es) prišel do izraza in znova se je izkazala čudovita muzikalnost kitarista. Sklepni stavek »Allegro non troppo« je bil poln izraznosti, vendar je bilo vsako sozvočje popolnoma pod nadzorom izvajalca. Slišali smo dobro izdelano interpretacijo, kjer se glasbenik povsem prepušča občutku, vendar ni nič prepuščeno naključju.

Tradicionalna irska pesem »Danny Boy« je v priredbi za kitaro, ki jo je ustvaril sodobni japonski skladatelj Toru Takemitsu, ponudila barvito mešanico med preprostim in nekoliko zahtevnejšim, med tradicionalnim in novim. Vendar je bilo to »novo« vkomponirano zelo diskretno in je vsaj 300 let stari melodiji dodalo barvitejšo izrazno globino.

Za učinkovit sklep recitala pa je poskrbelo »Šest balkanskih miniatur« Dušana Bogdanovića. Živahno »Jutranje kolo«, otožna »Žalopojka«, silovito izrazna »Vranjanka«, poskočno in ritmično razgibano »Makedonsko kolo«, strastno čustveni stavek »Široko« ter sklepni plesni stavek »Sitni vez«. Vse to je bilo izvedeno z izjemno izrazno dimenzijo.

Navdušenemu aplavzu so sledili dodatki, med njimi je bila tudi prikupna skladba »Microphone fever« ameriškega skladatelja Ricka Ruskina.

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