Thanks to the young and successful Croatian conductor, Andrej Vesel, the audience of the Vienna Konzerthaus will have the opportunity to hear Dora Pejačević’s Overture in D minor. In the Mozart Hall, on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, it will be performed by the Ton der Jugend Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andrej Vesel. The soloist at the concert will be the young pianist Serena, who will perform Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C minor, Op. 18 and Scriabin’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F minor, Op. 20. The artist is supported by the Bösendorfer company, one of the oldest and most luxurious piano manufacturers in the world, and it is the first time that a pianist without formal musical education performs in the famous Vienna hall with an orchestra!

It is interesting to note that the Dora Pejačević Project was started in 1999 as a Croatian-Austrian cultural project whose goal was the international affirmation of the works of the composer Dora Pejačević by publishing and distributing her works in music editions and on sound carriers. The initiators of the project were the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst from Vienna and the Croatian Music Information Center, and other institutions related to the work on Dora Pejačević’s works were also involved, such as the Croatian Music Institute, the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Division for the History of Croatian Music at Croatian Academy of Science and Arts. Thanks to the efforts of the Music Information Center and its partners, Dora Pejačević’s name has certainly become the most significant, and her works the most performed works of any Croatian author in the world.

The small but artistically valuable oeuvre of Dora Pejačević also includes the Overture in D minor, composed for a large orchestra in 1919. The composition is based on three themes: the first, rhythmically striking and dramatic, the second, a song of romantic ductus, and the third, idyllic and bright. The form of this unpretentious composition is completely fused, poured into an organic unity, and the flow of the music is not interrupted by caesuras. Due to its duration, dynamism and richness of atmosphere, the composition is ideal as an opening piece for classical concert programs by large orchestras.

Ana Unkić / Jelena Vuković