Description
A summer afternoon. Two of the most beautiful gardens in Slovenia. The finest musicians of the Slovenian Philharmonic, sitting among the roses — and a children's folklore ensemble, dressed all in white, dancing the old country dances around them. The sun falls low through the chestnut trees, a bow is lifted, and for a few minutes the garden itself seems to sing. This little film is our love letter to a summer, to a place, and to one of the most beloved pieces of music ever written in Slovenia.
— WHERE IT WAS FILMED —
We filmed across two of Slovenia's loveliest green sanctuaries — the Arboretum Volčji Potok, with its endless gardens and tree-lined avenues, and the historic Park Brdo — and, for the quieter, more intimate moments, in elegant apartments beside the Triple Bridge in the very heart of Ljubljana. The leading players of the Slovenian Philharmonic are joined here by the children and young dancers of the ISKRAEMECO folklore group, with young Izidor Kejžar as the boy who wanders, laughs and dances his way through the music.
— THE MUSIC: MARJAN KOZINA & "BELA KRAJINA" —
The music is by Marjan Kozina (1907–1966), one of the great Slovenian composers of the twentieth century — and a wonderfully many-sided man. Born in the old town of Novo mesto, he first studied philosophy and mathematics, was a passionate chess player, and only then trained as a musician in Vienna and Prague, where one of his teachers was the celebrated Czech composer Josef Suk. Slovenians know his name from the cinema, too: he wrote the music for some of the country's most cherished films, including the children's classic Kekec and Na svoji zemlji, the first Slovenian feature film ever made. He even served as the very first director of the newly founded Slovenian Philharmonic. Much of his finest music, though, was dreamed up far from any concert hall — at his little vineyard cottage on a hill above Novo mesto, where he found inspiration in the surrounding countryside.
"Bela krajina" is his best-loved orchestral work. Kozina called it a symphonic scherzo — and a scherzo is, quite literally, a "joke" or a "play" in Italian, a light and dancing kind of music. It belongs to his great Symphony, a cycle of four movements written as a memorial to the Slovenian people and their suffering in wartime. The earlier movements carry the listener across dark and bloody battlefields; then comes "Bela krajina", where, in the composer's own words, "the sun shines again, and the girls dance the ancient round dance." That single sentence is the whole spirit of this film. Built on real folk melodies and overflowing with optimism, the piece became, for decades, the most frequently performed orchestral work in all of Slovenia — a small, unofficial anthem of joy and of the will to live. (The complete Symphony was first heard only in 1967, a year after Kozina's death.)
It takes its name from Bela krajina — "White Carniola" — a sunlit region in the south-east of Slovenia, famous for its birch woods, its ancient circle dances, and its strikingly beautiful, all-white folk costume. That is why the children you see here are dressed in white.
— THE SLOVENIAN PHILHARMONIC —
The orchestra you are listening to is one of the oldest of its kind anywhere in Europe, with roots reaching all the way back to the year 1701. Its history is studded with astonishing names: Joseph Haydn accepted honorary membership and thanked the society with the score of one of his masses; Ludwig van Beethoven did the same, enclosing a copy of his "Pastoral" Symphony; the violinist Niccolò Paganini and the composer Johannes Brahms belonged to it as well. And a very young Gustav Mahler, right at the start of his career, stood before this orchestra as its conductor in 1881. Today the great concert hall of the Slovenian Philharmonic in Ljubljana proudly bears the name of Marjan Kozina — a fitting home for the composer of "Bela krajina."
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MUSIC
Marjan Kozina: Bela krajina
Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra — conductor Dmitrij Liss
© Slovenska filharmonija & ℗ RTV Slovenija
Music producer: Matjaž Prah
Balance engineer: Aleks Pirkmajer Penko
Mastering: Iztok Zupan (Klopotec produkcija)
Slovenian Philharmonic director: Matej Šarc
https://www.filharmonija.si
FILM
PPZ Production · TAJUS Production · MOPS Production
The boy: Izidor Kejžar
Assistants: Dan Ažman, Gal Nagode, Jakob Zevnik
Crane & dolly grip: Marjan Cerar
Production lead & executive producer: Juš Hrastnik
Script: Primož Zevnik & Juš Hrastnik
Direction & editing: Primož Zevnik
LOCATIONS & SPECIAL THANKS
ISKRAEMECO Folklore Group — https://folklora.si
Arboretum Volčji Potok — https://www.arboretum.si
Park Brdo — https://brdo.si/sl/park-brdo
Tromostovje Apartments, central Ljubljana — Mateja Košir, TV Ambienti
Cover photography: Iztok Zupan
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