Page 394 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2020. Konservatoriji: profesionalizacija in specializacija glasbenega dela ▪︎ The conservatories: professionalisation and specialisation of musical activity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 4
P. 394
konservator iji: profesionalizacija in specializacija glasbenega dela
lowed to work.30 Stančić set the new high standards in the piano pedagogy
and directed the Croatian piano school towards a high level of profession-
alism, a monumental Lisztian technique and a penchant for German and
Austrian classical and romantic repertoires. Lorković, Vrinjanin and Vuk-
dragović then passed on this Lisztian legacy onto their Belgrade students.
As we can see, the newly-established piano department of the Bel-
grade academy became a melting pot of several traditions – Russian,
Czech, French, Italian and, after the war, German. Among others, the de-
partment hired professors who were pianistic descendants of the greatest
nineteenth-century pianists, Chopin and Liszt. This explains why the pi-
ano department at the Belgrade Academy set a very high standard right
from the outset and never abandoned it. This is confirmed in Emil Hajek’s
recollections:
The department is mixed in terms of the professors’ place and type
of education and, due to this, different methodological approaches
to the principles of piano teaching. Each one of them is given the op-
portunity to apply, develop, correct and perfect their teaching meth-
od, and to build their reputation on the basis of success of their stu-
dents. There is no monopoly of a single pedagogical method. Yet,
there is a common goal: the work discipline of students, a constant
improvement of purposeful technical habits based on the natural
features of our physical (bodily) mechanism, and their application
for the purpose of achieving a technically immaculate performance,
faithful to the composer’s idea.31
The First Students of the Piano Department; Requirements
and Curriculum
The opening of the Academy did not result in an immediate surge of pro-
spective students. Not only was the broad public poorly informed of the
purpose of the new institution, but, as described by Emil Hajek, the two
Belgrade music schools, “Mokranjac” and “Stanković”, “kept their best stu-
dents by telling them that the Academy will not offer them anything better
than what they had already learned at these schools.”32 Still, soon it became
30 See Stančić’s biography at the website of Croatian Music Information Centre:
“Svetislav Stančić,” Croatian Music Information Centre, http://quercus.mic.hr/quer-
cus/person/1211.
31 Hajek, “Perspektive mladih pijanista,” 52–53.
32 Ibid., 46.
392
lowed to work.30 Stančić set the new high standards in the piano pedagogy
and directed the Croatian piano school towards a high level of profession-
alism, a monumental Lisztian technique and a penchant for German and
Austrian classical and romantic repertoires. Lorković, Vrinjanin and Vuk-
dragović then passed on this Lisztian legacy onto their Belgrade students.
As we can see, the newly-established piano department of the Bel-
grade academy became a melting pot of several traditions – Russian,
Czech, French, Italian and, after the war, German. Among others, the de-
partment hired professors who were pianistic descendants of the greatest
nineteenth-century pianists, Chopin and Liszt. This explains why the pi-
ano department at the Belgrade Academy set a very high standard right
from the outset and never abandoned it. This is confirmed in Emil Hajek’s
recollections:
The department is mixed in terms of the professors’ place and type
of education and, due to this, different methodological approaches
to the principles of piano teaching. Each one of them is given the op-
portunity to apply, develop, correct and perfect their teaching meth-
od, and to build their reputation on the basis of success of their stu-
dents. There is no monopoly of a single pedagogical method. Yet,
there is a common goal: the work discipline of students, a constant
improvement of purposeful technical habits based on the natural
features of our physical (bodily) mechanism, and their application
for the purpose of achieving a technically immaculate performance,
faithful to the composer’s idea.31
The First Students of the Piano Department; Requirements
and Curriculum
The opening of the Academy did not result in an immediate surge of pro-
spective students. Not only was the broad public poorly informed of the
purpose of the new institution, but, as described by Emil Hajek, the two
Belgrade music schools, “Mokranjac” and “Stanković”, “kept their best stu-
dents by telling them that the Academy will not offer them anything better
than what they had already learned at these schools.”32 Still, soon it became
30 See Stančić’s biography at the website of Croatian Music Information Centre:
“Svetislav Stančić,” Croatian Music Information Centre, http://quercus.mic.hr/quer-
cus/person/1211.
31 Hajek, “Perspektive mladih pijanista,” 52–53.
32 Ibid., 46.
392
