Antonio Janigro, I Solisti Di Zagreb - Serenata: A Bouquet of Favorites for Strings (1958) [2008]

Although led by cellist/conductor Antonio Janigro in its early years, I Solisti di Zagreb went on to become one of a few chamber ensembles to achieve international acclaim without the leadership of a regular conductor. Consisting of about 11 core members, it is best known for interpretations of Baroque music, particularly the works of J.S. Bach and Vivaldi. But its repertory is inclusive of considerably more, taking in compositions of Mozart, Bartók, Shostakovich, and contemporary Croatian composers like Andelko Klobucar and Milko Kelemen. The ISZ's regular-season concerts are given at the Croatian Music Institute concert hall and often present world premieres, as with the James deMars Violin Concerto (2009). The ISZ has performed under guest conductors and gives regular concert tours across, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and more remote parts of the globe. It has made numerous recordings over the years, most of them available from Vanguard, RCA, and Sony Classics.

I Solisti di Zagreb was founded in 1953 by Antonio Janigro, with the aid of Zagreb Radio and Television. He served as the ensemble's music director and conductor until 1968. In its early years the ISZ occasionally appeared on budget recordings, but with notable success, as evidenced by the 1966 Vox LP of Mozart Piano Concertos No. 9 & No. 14, with then up-and-coming pianist Alfred Brendel. Following Janigro's departure, the ISZ began performing without a conductor in concert, with only the concertmaster giving a cue to start performances.

From 1968, Dragotin Hrdjok served as concertmaster, and he would be succeeded by Tonko Ninic, who also became the ensemble's artistic director. By the mid-'70s the ISZ was internationally acclaimed and able to attract many world-class soloists. James Galway often performed with the ISZ and recorded a flute version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons with it on an acclaimed RCA LP in 1976. He went on to make several more successful recordings with the ISZ.

Ninic departed in 1997 and was succeeded by Andelko Krpan, who served until 2002. By this time the ensemble had given more than 3,000 concerts worldwide and remained a major presence on the recording scene. From 2002-2006 Karlo Slobodan Fio served as concertmaster and artistic director. In 2006 Borivoj Martinic-Jercic was appointed his successor and remains in the post. Among the ISZ's later recordings is the 2006 EMI CD of J.S. Bach oboe concertos, with oboist Han de Vries.

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Italian-born conductor and cellist Antonio Janigro is best known to contemporary audiences for his many recordings with the chamber orchestra I Solisti di Zagreb, an ensemble he founded in 1954. Staples of the record-store Baroque section for many years, they helped build the enormous popularity that has since come to the music of Vivaldi and his contemporaries, and they still hold up well as widely available reissues. Janigro came to Baroque music fairly late in life, however. His recordings as a conductor capped a musical career touched by two world wars.

Janigro once described the atmosphere of his childhood as musical but tragic. He was born in 1918 in Milan to a pianist father whose career had ended when he lost an arm to a sharpshooter in World War I. Janigro started out on piano but switched to the cello at age eight, winning admission to the Verdi Conservatory a year later. At age 11 he performed for Pablo Casals, who recommended Janigro for admission to the prestigious Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. Studying there in the mid-1930s, he had Casals and Nadia Boulanger as teachers, Dinu Lipatti and Ginette Neveu as classmates, and Stravinsky as an eminence. His repertoire as a performer would range from early music to brand-new compositions. Practicing his cello on a train from Paris to Milan, Janigro was heard by a talent agent, and his career was launched.

After a promising start as a recitalist, Janigro took a vacation to Zagreb, Yugoslavia, just as World War II broke out. Essentially stranded, he began a new career as professor of cello at the Zagreb Conservatory. He continued to tour internationally and to teach cello after the war, with a stint at the conservatory in Düsseldorf, Germany, from 1965 to 1974. In Yugoslavia, however, he worked increasingly often as a conductor. At the behest of the government he formed the Zagreb Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, serving as its conductor from 1954 to 1964. Taking advantage of Yugoslavia's relative independence from the Soviet domination, he also conducted several top Western European orchestras, but his most extensive touring came with I Solisti di Zagreb. That group, although not affiliated with the historical performance practice movement, offered crisp readings of Baroque orchestral works that sharply diverged from the bloated symphony performances that were the norm at the time.

Tracks:


1 Concerto a cinque in B-flat Major, Op. 5, No. 1
2 Concerto a cinque in B-flat Major, Op. 5, No. 1
3 Concerto a cinque in B-flat Major, Op. 5, No. 1
4 String Quintet, Op. 13, No. 5
5 Sicilienne
6 Sonata in A Minor
7 Sonata in A Minor
8 Sonata in A Minor
9 String Quartet Op. 3, No. 5
10 Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3
11 Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3
12 Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3
13 Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3
14 Serenade Number 13 in G Major, K. 525 "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
15 Serenade Number 13 in G Major, K. 525 "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
16 Serenade Number 13 in G Major, K. 525 "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
17 Serenade Number 13 in G Major, K. 525 "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
18 Fantasia on "Greensleeves"
19 Concertino in G
20 Concertino in G
21 Concertino in G
22 Concertino in G
23 Valse trieste, Op. 44
24 Adagio for strings, Op. 11


Conductor – Antonio Janigro
Ensemble – I Solisti di Zagreb