An exhibition on the 100th anniversary of Maestro's birth
Exhibition concept: Marina Perica Krapljanov
Visual design: Bilić_Müller Design Studio
In 2009, Mrs Marina Würth Klepač, the daughter of the artistic married couple Ruža Cvjetičanin and Rudolf Klepač, donated items from her parents’ heirloom collection to the holdings of the Zagreb City Museum. The collection has been digitalized and entered into the Museum inventory, and today it represents the backbone of the collection entitled “The Heritage of Zagreb Musical Legends”. In 2013 it was entered into the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia. The Collection has become the foundation for research of the art and life of Maestro Rudolf Klepač (since his childhood in the Varaždin area, his education in Zagreb, his first performances and important milestones of his life: his arrival in Salzburg where he became a member of The Mozarteum and where he performed for several decades as a soloist musician and as a teacher).
With his work and efforts Rudolf Klepač promoted the bassoon, an instrument which has made only a few musicians famous.
The 100th Anniversary Celebrations devoted to the Maestro started with numerous events in March 2013: the ceremonial concert of the Zagreb Philharmonic conducted by Leopold Hager in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, the temporary exhibition Rudolf Klepač and the Zagreb Philharmonic / Concerts in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, and a publication of an extensive monograph of Rudolf Klepač written by Bosiljka Perić Kempf.
As a part of this ceremonial period, the Zagreb City Museum presents this extraordinary man and artist with the exhibition Rudolf Klepač – Maestro of the Bassoon. The core of this exhibition are items, photographs and archive material from the donated heritage, but also items borrowed for the occasion from the private family heirloom collection.
Rudolf Klepač, was born on 30th March 1913 in Majerje near Varaždin. From 1926 to 1930, he attended the Military Music School in Vršac where he learned how to play the clarinet and the bassoon. Later he played in the Royal Guard Symphonic Orchestra in Belgrade and the Military Band in Subotica. Rudolf Klepač also played in the youth orchestra “The Revellers”.
He continued his education from 1940 to 1943 at the Secondary Music School of the Zagreb Music Academy, in the class of Antun Kubin.
Before arriving at Salzburg in 1955, Maestro Klepač played in several orchestras: The Opera Orchestra of the Croatian National Theatre, The Croatian Radio Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphonic Orchestra (today the Zagreb Philharmonic) and the Symphonic Orchestra of Yugoslav Radio Broadcasting. Numerous concert programme booklets and posters serve as evidence of his lucrative work.
He taught the bassoon at the Secondary Music School (from 1945 to 1948 and from 1951 to 1954). From 1954 to 1959, he was the first professor who ever taught this instrument at the Zagreb Music Academy.
Faith, a combination of lucky circumstances (as this was often referred to by Maestro Klepač himself) happened in 1955 during the guest concert of the Zagreb Philharmonic in Austria. Having listened to his brilliant playing in the orchestra, the conductor Ernst Märzendorfer invited Rudolf Klepač to continue his career in the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg. This is when the 30-year career of the “Mozart Bassoonist” or the “Magician of the Bassoon”, as the Maestro was called by the press, began.
In Salzburg, the shrine of music, Rudolf Klepač not only achieved his brilliant career as a solo bassoonist promoting the bassoon as a soloist instrument, but also established the extraordinary reputation as a professor at the Mozarteum Academy of Music and Performing Arts and the International Summer Academy as a part of the Salzburg Festival, where he held master classes until 1990. The participants were well-known musicians, bassoonists, who came to learn from the best.
He was also the chairman of the Salzburger Bläserkammermusikvereinigung (Salzburg Wind-Section Chamber Music Association) with which he organised over three hundred concerts. In 1965, he founded the Serenaden Ensemble (the Serenade Ensemble), remained its leader for many years to come and performed at the Schlosskonzerte (the Castle Concerts) in the Salzburg Mirabell Castle.
Throughout his long career Maestro Klepač, an outstanding musician, educator and a promoter of music, received numerous awards and prizes for his work in both of his “homelands”. The most significant are: The City of Salzburg Golden Ring Award, the Max Reinhardt Award, the Mozart medal, the Vladimir Nazor Life Achievement Award, the Order of Danica Hrvatska with the face of Marko Marulić ...
With this exhibition, the Zagreb City Museum would like to thank the Klepač family for their valuable donation which has enriched the Museum holdings and cherishes the memory of this brilliant artist, educator and patriot.
Marina Perica Krapljanov
Pictures from the exhibition
photo Miljenko Gregl, ZCM
Exhibition catalogue
Perica Krapljanov, Marina; Bosiljka Perić Kempf; Maja Šojat-Bikić. Rudolf Klepač - Maestro of the Bassoon.
Zagreb : Zagreb City Museum, 2013
[in Croatian and German]
