CROATIAN MUSIC - BRUNO BJELINSKI

Bruno Bjelinski Productivity, creativity and commitment to the active musical performance represent references associated with the name of the composer and academic Bruno Bjelinski (Trst, November 1, 1909 – Silba, September 3, 1992). After completing law school and after graduating from the Academy of Music in Zagreb under Blagoje Bersa, Fran Lhotka and Franjo Dugan, for some time he pursued a career as a lawyer. Only after the war ended and after his very short engagement in the Music School in Split (1944 – 1945) he was appointed as a professor at the Music Academy in Zagreb where he was active until his retirement in 1977. As a professor at the Academy he achieved a versatile co-operation with many students and thus contributed to creation of exceptional quality of professionalism at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. Bjelinski stands out with his vast opus of music work possible to follow by detecting seemingly the same musical impulse immanently linked to Bjelinski, as a person active within the environment. However, in music-terminological vocabulary, music composed by Bjelinski is closest to the neo-classical tone of the first half of 20th century. Among orchestral pieces there are even fifteen symphonies, six symphonettes, solo concerts composed for almost all of the musical instruments and several piano concerts, Bjelinski is taking inspiration from and turning to literature, and expanding the borders of a paradigmatic symphonic tune by introducing a vocal, however leading also to the content orientation of the composer’s opus. As numerous other composers, Bjelinski also recognises a piano as a primary instrument, the most appreciated, instrument used for experimenting, and the most suitable for virtuoso performance of music, something new and different. Nevertheless, the most peculiar side of this composer is present in music and scenic pieces in which surfaces talent and sensitivity to child perception, as in the opera Maja the Bee, in ballet Pinocchio, Petar Pan, Puss in Boots and others.