21st International Festival “Ars vivendi clavicembalum” – Ensemble “PARNAS”

Members of the Ensemble Parnas, harpsichordists Jana Petrović, Marija Petrović, Marjana Hrašovec, Teodora Krstić, Ana Tošić, Igor Glavašić and Tina Neutzer will perform pieces for harpsichord of French Barque composers Couperin, Rameau, Royer and Balbastre.

Program:
François Couperin (1668–1733)
Les Lis naissans
Les Folies Françaises, ou les Dominos
JANA PETROVIĆ
Les Graces Naturelles
Zenobia
MARIJA PETROVIĆ
La Ténébreuse. Allemande
Courante I
Courante II
MARJANA HRAŠOVEC

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
La Dauphine
MARJANA HRAŠOVEC
L’ Entretien des Muses
TEODORA KRSTIĆ
La Poule
ANA TOŠIĆ
Gavotte
IGOR GLAVAŠIĆ

Claude-Bénigne Balbastre (1724–1799)
La D’Héricourt
ANA TOŠIĆ
La Boulognne
TEODORA KRSTIĆ

Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer (1703–1755)
La Marche des Scythes
TINA NEUTZER

Ensemble Parnas was founded in 2013 as an association for the interpretation of baroque chamber music Parnas. The founder and director of the ensemble is harpsichordist Svetlana Stojanović Kutlača, doctor of musical arts. The ensemble gathers primarily young harpsichordists, and depending on the selected concert program, it includes other vocal and instrumental artists, devotees of historical performance practice. The name of the ensemble was chosen at the same time as a play on the word par-nas and a symbol of striving for artistic perfection, in accordance with the names of works of French neoclassicism, which the members of the ensemble have had in their repertoire since its foundation (each artist strives to reach the ideals of knowledge and perfection that are on Mount Parnassus nurtured by the mythological Muses and their leader Apollo, so even after the end of the Baroque era, Parnassus remains the ideal of the classical artist). The main goal of the ensemble is the promotion of the baroque soloist and chamber repertoire and the reaffirmation of historical interpretive procedures: improvisation, ornamentation, inequality, agogic freedoms. Ensemble concerts are thematic, represent elaboration of some of the general philosophical or aesthetic ideas and are often completed by demonstrating the parallel of musical works of a certain cultural circle or era with corresponding art, literary or philosophical works. Since its foundation, the ensemble has performed in all important Belgrade halls (the Great Hall of the Kolarac Foundation, the City Hall, the Atrium of the National Museum, the SANU Gallery, the Great Hall of the SKC, the Ethnographic Museum, Konak of Kneginja Ljubica) and at the Ars vivendi clavicembalum festivals in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019, 2022 and 2023. The most significant projects of the Parnas ensemble include: Integral performance of Bach concertos for duo harpsichord; “Passacaglia”; “Music as an echo of the universe”; concert cycle “Principles of Baroque music: improvisation, polyphony ornamentation”; Italian early Baroque; “Vivaldi’s Triumph”; “Excellence and strength”; “Scientists and humanists”; “About infinity”; “About the miraculous”; “About happiness” …

Harpsichord players: Svetlana Stojanović Kutlača, D.A. FMU Belgrade, head of the ensemble; Anastasija Marković Todorić, M.A., “Benedeto Marcello” Venice; Tina Neutzer, M.A. FMU Belgrade; Isidora Kuzmanović, M.A. FMU Belgrade; Emilija Miodrag, M.A. Academy of Music, Ljubljana; Olga Petrović, master student “Mocarteum” Salzburg, Austria; Graduated harpsichordists from the “Josip Slavenski” Music High School from the class of S.S. Kutlaca: Marijana Hrašovec, Ana Tošić, Jana Petrović, Marija Petrović, Teodora Krstić and Igor Glavašić