On Thursday, 10 March, the Belgrade Philharmonic Wind Quintet appeared at the Centre Culturel de Serbie in Paris. The Quintet, consisting of Marina Nenadović (flute), Bojan Pešić (oboe), Veljko Klenkovski (clarinet), Nenad Janković (basson) and Nenad Vasić (horn), gave a concert at the packed Gallery of the Centre Culturel, located in Paris’ cultural neighbourhood, right in front of the Georges Pompidou Centre.
 
For this performance, the Wind Quintet prepared a French-Serbian repertoire. In a unique concept consisting of the pieces by Ibert, Despić, Pierne and Hristić, the musicians combined the stylistic features of Impressionism with a neoclassical expression and creativity of the Serbian musical humour. Eager to present the Serbian culture to the fastidious French audience in an unusual way, the musicians performed Fifteen handles by Stevan, a humorous piece by Zoran Hristić, inspired by musical motifs from Stevan Mokranjac’s music.
 
“When a nation’s culture has such magnificent geniuses, like Mokranjac, then it is acceptable to also reflect on its tradition in a humorous way, which we consider a huge asset. For us, it was an honour to play a programme in our Cultural Centre that included pieces by both French and Serbian composers. I hope that the concert of our Quintet was a breath of fresh air in the musical life of Paris, the city in which every artist feels privileged to perform“, said bassoonist Nenad Janković.
 
The Belgrade Philharmonic Wind Quintet was founded in 2006 by distinguished musicians of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. The Quintet has appeared at all major musical events in Serbia, they actively promote and popularize wind instruments and teach chamber music to their younger fellow musicians. Through performances of chamber ensembles at the Centre Culturel de Serbie in Paris, the Belgrade Philharmonic is presenting the representative parts of the orchestra. The previous BPO chamber ensemble that appeared at the Centre Culturel was the String Quartet, in May last year.