On the 20th of June, I had a concert in a small city Dugo selo, next to my hometown Zagreb where I played Cesar Franck’s sonata with my dear coleague and friend , pianist Mladen Grgić.
It was an event of Croatian Society of flutists where we played in masterclass for amazing pedagogues and flautists; Philippe Bernold and Jan Ostry. Also, Rok Erjavac from Daminellipietro flute shop in Slovenia visited us and brang some flutes which were possible to try out, which was really nice since in Zagreb there is not a shop where you can try out various professional models of flutes, especially golden ones. Also, Nina Šincek from Aclassic shop with musical scores came to visit the event and she brought lot of scores and accessories for flute.
On this event Mladen and myself played on a concert of members of Croatian Flute Society and it felt really rewarding to play Franck’s sonata. My first expirience with this sonata started when I heard couple of melodies from my teacher and piano accompanist from academy. She played it with violin or cello and said how beautiful this music is and how you have to let go of each and every pressure and just dive into the music. Hearing her words, I really got interested about this sonata, and wanted to know why is it so special.
I started to listen it and fell in love in this beautiful music. I listened this sonata for a whole year, every single day, for many times, all the recordings I found. Pahud with Eric, Galway with Martha Argerich, Oistriach, Zimermann were my favourite. I found it so beautiful and amusing that I couldn’t find the courage to take the scores and perform it. Finally, back then already my friend, my teacher/piano accomoanist encouraged me to play it on a concert. And then I started to feel like this sonata exist in my veins and I know it by heart already.
Since that first concert with my teacher, I decided to play this sonata as many times as possible.
During 2020 I started to cooperate with pianist Mladen Grgić and we formed a duo ‘Geatenel’ .
This was second time that we performed Franck’s sonata and it felt incredible. It is really amazing to feel so conected with composer that you can almost feel his presence during concert.
To all my musicians readers, I wish lots of sucess with your musical adventures and never forget to enjoy the priviledge of being a messenger to another world through what we call – music.
Jeannedeflute