Slovenia and the Slovenian language most likely are not areas of familiarity for the majority of musicians and music listeners. But that shouldn’t stop anyone from getting to know more about both from this excellent traversal of 32 Slovenian songs, beautifully and lovingly sung by mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink and her brother, baritone Marcos. If you’re (understandably) wondering what connection these two singers have with Slovenia and Slovenian songs, the answer is that they were born in Argentina to Slovenian parents, in a household “where singing was very present.” We’re lucky that these siblings, both of whom are first-class song-interpreters and world-class singers, chose to introduce us to this amazing and virtually unknown repertoire.
Slovenian is a South Slavic language spoken by about 2.5 million people mainly in Slovenia, but also in parts of Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Croatia. But who knew that the art song as we know it—and as represented on this CD—has been a part of Slovenian culture for more than 150 years? No, the songs performed on this program are not arrangements of folksongs—not that there’s anything wrong with that—but are composed settings of Slovenian poetic texts, mostly written during the latter-19th to late-20th century. The style of most of them is firmly rooted in the garden of Romanticism, with forays into French impressionism and the slightly more untamed vegetation of Wolf and Strauss.
Unless you’re an expert in this music, you won’t have heard of the composers—Lajovic; Ipavec; Mašek; Škerjanc; Prelovec—but you will instantly relate to the lyrical, often sensuous melodies and to the texts, whose sounds are music in themselves. Pianist Anthony Spiri gets full expressive value from the often challenging and integral accompaniments. The sound, from a Berlin studio, perfectly captures the living, vibrant interplay of voices and piano. And whoever is responsible for including information on where to obtain the published edition of these songs (Society of Slovene Composers), God bless you. Highly recommended.
