Bersiana
KALAMOS QUINTET
Katarina Grubić, oboe
Yaroslav Sadovyy, clarinet
Dominik Grgić, saxophone
Rude Mimica, bass clarinet
Matko Smolčić, bassoon
program: B. Bersa, F. Busoni, M. Ravel
The Kalamos Quintet is the first and unique reed quintet in the wider region. The term refers to an ensemble of woodwind instruments that use a reed. These are the oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bass clarinet and bassoon, along with their related variants, which appeared on the world stage relatively recently, in the mid-1980s. Founded in 2013 in Zagreb, the Kalamos Quintet has held a series of concerts to date with positive reviews from both audiences and critics. They often collaborate with domestic and foreign composers, thus expanding the concert repertoire for this type of ensemble.
Since a significant part of the repertoire for newer types of musical ensembles consists of transcriptions of music literature dating from the 15th to the 20th century, the Quintet chose a work of Blagoje Bersa, one of the most representative Croatian composers from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Bersa's works are featured in the program alongside those of his contemporaries Feruccio Busoni and Maurice Ravel. By setting them in a historically and stylistically related context, Bersa’s compositions will acquire a special dimension and establish their place as equal offshoots of the predominant cultural tendencies of the early 20th century.