Wednesday, 27 August at 7 PM
Stančić Hall, Music Academy in Zagreb
The only Zagreb evening in the Concerts of Excellence series brings three piano concertos on two concert grand pianos – performances that simply must be heard and a scene worth capturing!
Piano concertos by Mozart, Chopin and Rachmaninoff – works that demand virtuosity and musical maturity – will be performed by Mara Spitz, Josip Nikola Galić and Marija Topić, this year’s participants in Aljoša Jurinić’s masterclass. A shorter solo programme will also introduce the audience to three excellent young pianists coming from Denmark.
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756. – 1791.): Sonata in C Minor, KV 457
I. Molto allegro
III. Allegro assai
Sophus Elmark
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849): Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11
I. Allegro maestoso
Josip Nikola Garić
Frédéric Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 2, op. 35
III. Marche funèbre
IV. Finale. Presto
Sophus Elmark
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Piano Concerto in A Major, KV 414
–Allegro
–Andante
–Allegretto
Marija Topić
Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne u B Major, op. 62, br. 1
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770. – 1827.): Sonata in E flat Major, op. 31, br. 3
IV. Presto con fuoco
Emil Nabe
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943): Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18
II. Adagio sostenuto
III. Allegro scherzando
Mara Spiz
About the performers
Sophus Elmark (2007) has been studying at Gradus Junior College in Aarhus under the guidance of Prof. Martin Lysholm Jepsen since 2020. At just 18 years old, he has already performed over one hundred concerts both nationally and internationally, and most recently appeared as a soloist at the Nordisk Kammermusikfestival 2024 and Copenhagen Summer Festival 2024. He was selected as one of only two Danish participants in the Aarhus International Piano Competition 2025, which received more than 250 applications this year. He has won numerous prizes at national and international competitions, including Den Klassiske Juniorkonkurrence in Denmark (1st prize 2022, Gold 2023), Steinway Piano Festival in Denmark (1st prize 2020 and 2022), Pianister i Nord in Denmark (Talent Prize 2020, 1st prize 2023 and a special artistic award 2023), Yamaha Piano Competition in Malmö, Sweden (1st prize 2022), Nordic International Piano Competition in Arvika, Sweden (Jury Discretionary Award 2023, 2nd prize 2025), Music without Limits International Piano Competition in Druskininkai, Lithuania (1st prize 2023), Northern Lights International Piano Festival (Gold 2024), and ODIN International Music Competition (1st prize 2024). He has performed in Denmark, Italy, Greenland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, and has also played Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Vejle Symphony Orchestra. He has taken part in masterclasses with renowned pianists Kevin Kenner (USA), Aleksandr Ivanov (Russia/Germany), and Søren Rastogi (Denmark).
“This particular sonata is regarded as one of Mozarts most serious ones. It is in the key of c-minor which for Mozart meant drama. I have chosen to play this piece because of the storytelling in it, with it often having dual voices speaking to eachother. This will become very clear in the 1st movement. It’s a special piece for me that really challenges my skill as a musician for phrasing and creating tension at the right moments. It’s a great work that I am looking forward to sharing with you all.“
Sophus Elmark
Josip Nikola Garić is a thirteen-year-old pianist of Croatian origin living in Zurich. He began playing piano at the age of seven and has won several prizes in Swiss and international competitions. In addition to numerous joint performances, he has already given a dozen solo recitals and concerts. He attends the Arts/Sports Gymnasium for young talents and the Music Conservatory in Zurich, in the class of Professor Slave Spiridonov.
“Since I was little, I have felt a special connection with Chopin’s music, especially with his First Piano Concerto, and it has always been my dream to play it. Through the many Chopin pieces I have played so far, I have become acquainted with his complex emotional world, which always amazes and inspires me again and again. By performing this concerto, I would like to use Chopin’s music to show the audience a part of my story and my inner world.”
Josip Nikola Garić
Emil Dalgaard (2008) began playing the piano at the age of eight. He started his musical journey at Kolding Music School with the Suzuki method and later continued his studies with Martin Lysholm Jepsen at Gradus Junior College, where he still studies today. He has participated in and won prizes at numerous international piano competitions in countries such as Italy, Sweden, Lithuania, and others. Over the years, Emil has taken part in masterclasses with distinguished professors including Kevin Kenner, Eugene Indjic, Oxana Yablonskaya, Markus Schirmer, Eero Heinonen, Vera Nossina, among many others.
“The 2nd piano sonata by F. Chopin is notoriously known for its 3rd movement, the Funeral March. Being written two years prior to the rest of the sonata, 1837, the movement stands as the center of the sonata with a theme so known it has been used ever since it has been written. Afterwards the spooky 4. movement in which winds are blowing over the graves.“
Emil Dalgaard
Marija Topić (2003) began her musical education at the Zlatko Grgošević Music School in the class of Prof. Senka Appe, and then continued with Prof. Marina Mijatović. In 2022 she graduated and enrolled at the Music Academy in Zagreb in the class of Prof. Vladimir Babin. She has won various prizes in international solo competitions, including an outstanding second place at the national competition of piano duos (HDGPP) and first place at the Damir Sekošan solo competition (Osijek). She has attended masterclasses with renowned pedagogues and pianists. In 2025 she will collaborate with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the humanitarian project O.R.P.H.E.U.S., aimed at helping cancer patients, performing in the large hall of the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall under the baton of Maestro Alan Bjelinski. At the Music Academy she has collaborated with her colleague and singer Mia Raguž, performing in a vocal-piano duo, with recitals in Požega, Zagreb and Split, and at the vocal-piano duo competition in Novo Mesto (2025) they won a silver prize as the top-ranked duo in their category.
“Considering that the legendary Mozart was playful by nature, I tried to bring out that side of myself in performing this concerto. Specifically, the 1st and 3rd movements are faster and exude a joyful tone, while the 2nd movement requires a dose of calmness and an attempt to convey one’s inner feelings through playing. When playing and preparing this concerto, I am actually mostly ‘battling’ to make it sound so effortless, as if it were the simplest composition, while at the same time it contains material that requires attention to every little detail. The concerto contains elements that portray happiness, joy, serenity, composure, but also determination, and somehow all of this connected me with the piece so that I could also express all these things and give a part of myself to it.”
Marija Topić
Mara Spiz (2008) is a Croatian pianist and a student of the Preparatory Programme at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Graz in the class of Denis Zhdanov. She is a student of Aljoša Jurinić. She has won prizes at many European competitions (Città di Minerbio, Radovljica, Peter Toperczer, Alicante, PianoTalents Milano and Jurica Murai Memorial). She has refined her skills with renowned artists such as Natalia Trull, Boris Slutsky, Milana Chernyavska, Ruben Dalibaltayan and Vivian Li. She has performed in halls such as Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, Slovak Philharmonic Košice, Minoritensaal Graz, Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin, the Chopin Centre in Szafarnia and Casa Verdi in Milan. She is a two-time recipient of the “Oscar of Knowledge” and the City of Zagreb’s Excellence Scholarship, and she has also received a Land Steiermark scholarship for her outstanding achievements.
“Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto is considered one of the greatest and most difficult piano concertos, and it is so popular that it often appears in films. Its creation story is fascinating. Rachmaninoff, then 23 years old, had just composed his First Symphony, and everyone was eagerly awaiting its premiere. Unfortunately, the premiere was disastrous – from the drunk conductor to bad reviews – and it deeply shook Rachmaninoff, leaving him depressed and in a creative crisis. The concerto is dedicated to Nikolai Dahl, his psychologist, who managed to cure him and enable him to compose again. The premiere of the concerto was a huge success, and today it continues to be a favourite of both audiences and performers. It awakens the most refined interpretive intentions in every pianist, and for me it is a great pleasure to discover the many incredible colours and textures this concerto contains. I still remember the deep impression this piece made on me the first time I heard it. I had a fever and fell asleep to the sounds of the middle of the first movement. For many, the third movement symbolises triumph and final victory, best heard in the skilfully written and ecstatic coda in C major. I haven’t played many Rachmaninoff works, and at first learning this concerto (which wasn’t long ago) was really difficult and confusing for me, but with the help of my professors I managed to conquer it. The concerto is very intimate and everyone, including me, has their own ideas and interpretation of it.
I look forward to new Rachmaninoff works and this performance!”
Mara Spiz
