Beethoven’s Anniversary in Sarajevo in 1927

Abstract

In 1927, Europe marked the centennial of the death of one of its greatest composers, Ludwig van Beet ho­ ven. At the same time, Bosnia and Herzegovina within the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) was building the foundations of its musical institutions and trying to follow up with the more advanced cultural centers of the new state, Zagreb, Ljubljana, and Belgrade. The main feature of Bosnian musical life of the time (1918–1941) pertains to the establishment of the new musical institutions such as the National Theater (Narodno pozorište) and the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra (Sarajevska filharmonija), the fundamental institutions of musical culture in Bosnia and Herzegovina even today. This paper aims at providing an insight into the presence of Beethoven’s works in concert repertoires in Sarajevo (1918–1941), especially of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra but also to point out the special occasion of Beethoven’s anniversary in 1927. The Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra was the only musical institution of this kind, and the most important musical society for the development of musical culture of the time; consequently, the research is based on the analysis of the society’s concert repertoire and reviews from the daily newspapers.