Festival Maribor: The Voice of Eternity

Franz Schubert: Winterreise op. 89, D 911– selection
Folk music of Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia

Nataša Mirković, a Vienna-based singer and actress of Bosnian origin, and Matthias Loibner a master of the hurdy-gurdy, create bridges between worlds: between folk and classical music, between tradition and improvisation. Selected songs from Schubert’s cycle Winterreise tell the story of one person’s journey through cold and loneliness, which becomes a spiritual pilgrimage, an inner reckoning with time and loss. Balkan folk songs, which are imbued with centuries of experiencing the hard life in this volatile part of the world, convey the memories and emotions of ancestors. Matthias Loibner and Nataša Mirković felt the primal quality of Schubert’s lieder and recognised their resonance with the melancholic music of the Balkans. In adapting the piano part for the hurdy-gurdy, the two artists had to extract the essence of Schubert’s music, revealing it in its simplicity and immediacy, just like folk art.

At this concert, we will witness how the voice is not just a musical instrument, but a bearer of timelessness, a premonition of eternity, as it conveys that which survives the individual and distinct historical cycles. Music thus becomes a common contemplation, a memory and a prayer for belonging and inner peace.

Nataša Mirković, voice
Matthias Loibner, hurdy gurdy

* Tickets: €15 / pensioners €12 / students, disabled €7,50 / children €5.

You can buy tickets online, at the Information Office of the Maribor National Center and one hour before the start at the concert venue. Tickets with a discount can only be purchased at the Information Office Narodni dom Maribor and no more than one hour before the concert at the concert venue.