THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MEMORY

When the Croatian rock singer and composer Karlo Metikos died, regrettably still a very young man, a considerable void ensued. Mainly in the life of the pop, jazz and rock singer Josipa Lisac, who achieved her greatest hits precisely with his inspiration, especially her outstanding stage performances in his rock opera “Gubec-Beg”. But at the same time, the same void ensued in Croatian musical productiveness, since this was the death of the author of such splendid artistic accomplishments like – besides the rock operas “Gubec-Beg” and “Gricka vjestica” (“The witch from Gric hill”) – the songs “Dok razmisljam o nama” (“While I’m thinking about us”) and the anthological “Magla” (“The fog”), as well as the cult album “Dnevnik jedne ljubavi” (“Diary of a love”).

 The question arose: how to pay tribute to the composer KARLO METIKOS? While going over his vocal and vocal-theatrical exploits, one becomes aware of the exceptional depth and uniqueness of his music and grasps that it hides some, hitherto unseen, dimensions of valuable expression. This fact encouraged the thought that his music could fit into the symphonic fabric of the big orchestra and precisely that uncovered new and until that point hidden dimensions of METIKOS’ work. And even though Metikos himself successfully collaborated with top jazz and rock arrangers such as Miljenko Prohaska, a new arranger and composer of classical music, IGOR KULJERIC, appeared, himself an accomplished expert in the symphonic sound and the way music is conceived. In his sonic visions, the compositions of KARLO METIKOS gained a whole new musical shape. With his strong authorship, KULJERIC found a special version of symphonic rock, bearing in mind at the same time the distinctive uniqueness of JOSIPA LISAC’s vocal interpretations. In some of his remakes he brought in the chorus, thus producing the strong tableaus, especially in the scenes from the rock opera “Gubec-Beg”.

The vocal capabilities of JOSIPA LISAC and the composing experience of IGOR KULJERIC produced a program of a most monumental impression, performed in front of the ecstatic audience in Zagreb’s “Vatroslav Lisinski” concert hall, on December 10, 1994, repeated with the same vigour at the beginning of this year. The voice of JOSIPA LISAC climbs the fabric of KULJERIC’S symphonic sound like the wave hits the shore; with their capabilities the music of KARLO METIKOS got a new and even fuller expression. With this concert tribute to KARLO METIKOS, whose first performance is permanently preserved in this discographic edition, the tribute to one of the most talented composers of modern Croatian music was presented in a most beautiful fashion – the composer whose unwavering, in fact noble tuneful thoughts expose the essence and the beauty of the sung word in the most authentic way.