Matej Sarc - V vetru spominov (2021)

ZKP RTV Slovenia presents an album Tomaž Habe: In the Wind of Memories which has been made in cooperation with Radio Slovenia, Programme ARS, Serious Music Department of Radio Slovenia and Society of Slovene Composers. On the present compact disc,Tomaž Habe presents instrumental music highlighting superb concertante soloists on the oboe, the alto saxophone, the bassoon and the trumpet. In addition to the selected soloists for whom the works were actually written, the composer devotes particular attention to the soloists in the orchestral accompaniment – especially in the strings, which is certainly related to his study of the violin – and to the percussion in various combinations of diverse ensembles.The portrait on the present compact disc reveals Habe’s free-spirited attitude towards music, with which he directly addresses the performer and remains faithful to a proven style, without avantgarde interventions. Slightly veiled quotations from Slovenian folk songs and their variations lead directly to the listener’s pleasure, while a quotation from the Baroque repertoire serves as a programmatic emphasis. Nor does the composer hesitate to adopt the light language of popular music, with which he became familiar as an active performer and as the composer of one of the most enduring Slovenian popular songs. Habe weaves articulated, accented and irregular rhythms – characteristic of the tradition of the Balkans or South American folklore – into the music as a tribute to the selected performers or as a reminiscence of the well-known and popular role of the selected instrument. The composer’s melodic line has a lyrical simplicity but is nonetheless expressive, without destroying the firmly established rameworks of the European classical tradition. Tomaž Habe is committed to clear formal construction, whether in concertos or in programmatic narrative works. His compositional quill paints bright colours, which he is fond of shading with the juxtaposition of traditional, classical symphonic repertoire, on the one hand, and light dance music and musicals, on the other. He is also well served by the programmatic orientation of works in which musical memories and reminiscences are heard. His musical memories do not “roam far”, but are always present in this space and hover in the time of the creator’s imagination and within his horizon. Judging by his extensive oeuvre, the composer writes quickly and with ease, and the performances bear testimony to the fact that many of the compositions are commissioned works. Individual compositions appear in many versions, thus undergoing transformations and coming to life on the concert stage through a solo instrumental, as well as in chamber or even symphonic ensembles.