Symphony No. 1 for Large Orchestra, Soprano and Tenor, “Romantic”

The musical works of Josip, or Josef, Mandić (1883 – 1959) are a paradigm of the phenomenon of oblivion so common in art history. For how else can one account for Mandić and his opuses being to the widest circle of music lovers – and to most people who are at all familiar with Croatian music – today totally unknown, although in the words of competent critics of the time his First Symphony “was the first modern large-scale symphony by a composer in this country” (L. Šafranek-Kavić) , or “the greatest and grandest instrumental work of our [Yugoslav] music to date” (Emil Adamič)? Mandić’s orchestral compositions were conducted by some of the leading conductors of his time, like Nikolai Malko, Georg Szell (György Széll), Fritz Busch and Václav Talich, with such orchestras as the Czech Philharmonic, the Dresden Staatskapelle, or, for example, the Royal Scottish Philharmonic! The simplest answer is that most of Mandić’s works just disappeared without trace after his death in Prague in 1959.... Josip Mandić’s Symphony No. 1 was composed in 1929 and premiered on September 25 that year in the Bedřich Smetana Concert Hall of the Municipal House (Obecní dům) in Prague. The performance was conducted by the famous Czech conductor Václav Talich and featured tenor Miloslav Jeník and soprano Zdenka Ziková, primo uomo and prima donna of the Prague National Theatre Opera, with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. (...) Scherzo should be mentioned here as an especially successful movement. It uses Croatian folk music from Istria and other regions as “raw material”, i.e. the imitation of folk melodies that are later on “atomized” and implemented on motif level through different variations, while the form is built on their multiplication (addition, reduction or even superposition). Performance reviewers of the time praised the Scherzo and characterized it as “sharp and unified, fiery and particular” and established that “the second movement shows an obvious and powerful charge of eruptive musicality.” (Davor Merkaš)