Cankarjev dom is the largest Slovenian cultural and congress centre. The beginnings of the central arts institution, which enjoys the status of a cultural monument, go back to the 1970s, when the Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache appeared in Slovenia. He conducted a concert at the Slovenian Philharmonic, where the squeaking noises of the time-worn chairs in the auditorium greatly distracted the maestro’s attention. Celibidache condemned the state of the venue as a national disgrace resulting from the dismissive attitude of the Slovenian authorities to symphonic music. The incident generated a serious debate on the lack of suitable venues for symphonic concerts in Slovenia. An encounter with the conductor deeply affected a representative of Ljubljana’s cultural politics, Mitja Rotovnik, who invested all his efforts into solving the urgent issues of Ljubljana concert life. After the establishment of Cankarjev dom, Rotovnik served as its first director general.
Constructed between 1977 and 1982, the building was designed by architect Edvard Ravnikar, who incorporated modernist elements into his designs, and based them on modern European architecture (modelled after the Scandinavian style) and the legacy of Jože Plečnik. Cankarjev dom’s white stone facade, the overall crystalline structure and highly intricate details, featuring a kaleidoscope of glass, steel, concrete, brick and stone, as well as diverse wall coverings and panels, complement the monumentality of the building. Today, the building is regarded as an architectural gem, forming the cluster of notable Ljubljana landmarks together with Ljubljana Castle, the Skyscraper, the Triple Bridge and Robba’s Fountain. With Cankarjev dom, Ravnikar completed a coherent architectural and urban-planning complex around Republic Square (formerly, Revolution Square), a composition dominated by two tower blocks (which, according to the original plans, should have included 23 floors, but the project was not fully realised).
In adopting the concept of architectural stacking, Ravnikar succeeded in organising six halls around a relatively small ground plan, situating the bulk of the building underground – the centre’s substructure premises, which have witnessed historic and political events. More specifically, it was below the ground level of the ‘Ivan Cankar Centre’ that an important chapter of Slovenia’s independence process took place. Given that the political and national fate of the sovereign republic was first determined here, some perceive Cankarjev dom not only as an artistic but also a symbolic hub of Slovenian culture.
Slovenia’s main music venue, Gallus Hall, has hosted some of the most illustrious names in musical history, including Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Kleiber, Lorin Maazel, Simon Rattle, Ivo Pogorelić, Luciano Pavarotti, Anna Netrebko, Hilary Hahn, Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov and Stefan Milenković, and Jennifer Bate and Marie-Claire Alain, an astounding interpreter of Bach, on the venue’s installed organ.
The Gallus Hall organ is a special musical treasure. The instrument’s four manuals, pedalboard in seventy-three registers and nearly eight thousand pipes render the instrument the highest musical investment in the history of the Slovenian nation. The several-ton instrument was built at Karl Schuke’s Berlin workshop. The organ boasts the rich sonority of the German manual, dynamic diversity of the French manual, sonic brilliance of the Italian/Piran manual and blasting sonority of Spanish trumpets. The organ was given a prominent role at the concert inaugurating Gallus Hall, with a programme including a new work by Pavel Šivic for organ and orchestra, followed by an organ launch recital by Hans Haselböck and a recital by Slovenian organ teacher Hubert Bergant. The sound of the organ has become an indispensable part of Gallus Hall guided tours, of state commemorations and other ceremonies, congresses, high-school graduation balls and diploma or commencement ceremonies. Gallus Hall has provided the venue for several European competitions of young organists, and hosts the annual Academy of Music organ student concert.
Catering to lovers of classical music, Cankarjev dom’s Golden and Silver Season Series cover a wide selection of the world’s leading symphony orchestras, prominent chamber ensembles, as well as acclaimed soloists and conductors, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, etc. The two principal Slovenian symphony orchestras, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, regularly hold their season series concerts in Gallus Hall (Kromatika, Blue and Orange Series, respectively).
Also a prestigious opera venue, one of the important highlights of the Gallus Hall programme was a visiting production of The Ring of the Nibelung, the four-part cycle of Wagner’s music dramas, presented by the Mariinsky Theatre from St Petersburg under maestro Valery Gergiev. Cankarjev dom has undertaken large-scale operatic stagings in co-production with the Ljubljana Opera, most notably Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Verdi’s Otello.
The more intimate CD Club and Linhart Hall are ideal venues for new music practices, the contemporary musical forms featured in the Predihano concert series. The series presents performances of music by international composers such as Luigi Nono and Elliott Carter, and Slovenian composers, who include Vito Žuraj, Nina Šenk, Bojana Šaljič Podešva, Matej Bonin, etc.
Cankarjev dom also programmes jazz and world music concerts. The Jazz Festival Ljubljana and the Cankarjevi torki Series (Tuesday Clubbing in the CD Club) boast a wide gamut of illustrious names, including Achie Shepp, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Reggie Workman, Gregory Porter, Ornette Coleman, Hiromi, Mike Stern, John Zorn, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, etc.
Moreover, Cankarjev dom produces its own Music of the World Series, a concert series that also hosts events by other festivals, most notably the Druga godba Festival. The catalogue of musical luminaries working in different genres who have appeared at Cankarjev dom includes Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Natacha Atlas, Rokia Traoré, Mercedes Sosa, Anushka Shankar, Mariza, Salif Keita, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo and Cesaria Evora.
Maia Juvanc
