Sinfonia brevis

Boris Papandopulo (1906 – 1991) is one of the most distinctive Croatian musicians of the 20th century. Papandopulo also worked as music writer, journalist, reviewer, pianist and piano accompanist; however, he achieved the peaks of his career in music as a composer. His composing oeuvre is imposing – Papandopulo composed almost 500 opuses: with great success he created instrumental (orchestral, concertante, chamber and solo), vocal and instrumental (for solo voice and choir), music-stage and film music. In all these kinds and genres he left a string of anthology-piece compositions of great artistic value. For many years the location of the original manuscript of Sinfonia brevis of 1984 was unknown. Although composed of three very heterogeneous movements it nevertheless makes an impressive whole. The first movement is composed with the use of the twelve-tone technique and has neo-Classicist features; the second is characterised by a deeply emotional and rhythmically complex theme of great expressive power; the third is embellished by a theme of folk music origins, in this case very likely from Macedonian folk music with a very interesting irregular 10/8 measure. This attractive and effective composition is rewarding for the concert programmes of any orchestra, and because of the diversity of mood, character and colour, the freshness and synergy of the diverse elements, it will guarantee warm reception by the general concert-going public.