F.Schubert: Overture in C minor, D8
F.Mendelssohn: Violin concerto in D minor, MWV O 3
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F.Mendelssohn: Fourth symphony in A major, Op.40 “Italian”, MWV N 16 (arr. for string ensemble Sreten Krstić)
About our concert master Sreten Krstić
Born in 1953 in Belgrade, Krstić began to play the violin at the age of seven.
Later, he studied with Prof. Toškov and Prof. Pavlović at the Faculty of Music, University of Arts, in Belgrade. Having graduated, he worked as
Prof. Pavlović’s assistant at the Faculty, while, at the same time, completing his MA degree.
He received numerous first and special prizes at national, as well as international competitions. As an example, he was awarded a second prize
for a violin solo and a special prize for the best performance of a Bach composition at the International Competition «Jeunesses Musicales», in 1976, in Belgrade. In 1975 and 1977, as the concertmaster of the World Youth Orchestra, Krstić performed with soloists such as H. Szering and P. Fournier, and conductors J. Martinon and B. Klee. Since 1982, Krstić has been the principal concertmaster of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, with the great Sergiu Chelibidache as the orchestra’s chief-conductor. Starting in 1999, James Levine held this prestigous position for the next five years, followed by Christian Thielemann from September 2004, and Lorin Maazel from 2012. As a soloist, Krstić performed with famous conductors such as Sergiu Celibidache, Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Hiroshi Wakasugi, Horst Stein, Vaclav Neumann, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Christopher Hogwood, etc., performing Mendelssohn’s, Mozart’s, Wieniawsky’s, Paganini’s, Brahms’s, Vivaldi’s, Bach’s, to mention but a few, violin concertos. He also performed with many of the orchestras in ex-Yugoslavia, such as the Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana Philharmonic Orchestras, respectively, the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, etc. Soloist concerts take him to nearly all of the European countries, as well as to Japan, USA and the ex-USSR. He has founded the strings trio «Gasteig-Trio München» in 1985, and has been its member ever since. Since 1996, his work in chamber music intensified – he founded the strings sextet «Philharmonische Streichsextett», and, in 1999, the «Philharmonische Solisten». In the latter orchestra, Krstić is not only a member but the artistic leader as well. He has also been, for the last fifteen years, the artistic leader of the «Royal St. George String Chamber Orchestra» from Belgrade, as well as a member of the Gelius Piano Trio since 1999. Krstić has made recordings for all the radio and TV-stations in ex-Yugoslavia, Bavarian Radio (BR), West-German Radio (WDR), BBC (Manchester) and Greek Radio (Thessalonica). Also, for companies such as Thorofon and Arte Nova Classics, amongst others, he has recorded a number of CDs, some as a soloist and others in chamber music. From 2007 until 2010, Krstić was the artistic director of the Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS), one of the oldest and largest festivals for classical music in the region.
Fine solos from the orchestral musicians were too numerous to mention, but the magnificent contributions of the concertmaster, Sreten Krstic, in “Zarathustra” and “Heldenleben”a nd, especially,in the long violin solo of the third of “Four Last Songs,”‘ Beim Scfulafengehen (“Going to Sleep”), demand acknowledgment.
The only one to come out unscathed was violin concertmaster Sreten Krstić, who played a breathtakingly beautiful solo in „Beim Schlafengehen“ („Going to sleep“), the third of the songs and stood out in „Ein Heldenleben“ as well.
BWW Reviews: Soprano Karita Mattila Shimmers in Strauss’s Four Last Songs at Carnegie Hall, 17.04.2014.