Živojin Zdravkovich |

Zivojin Zdravkovich

Like many Yugoslav conductors, Zdravkovic is a graduate of the Czech school. After graduating from the Belgrade Academy of Music in the oboe class, he showed outstanding conductor skills and was sent to Prague, where V. Talikh became his teacher. While attending his conducting class at the conservatory, Zdravkovic simultaneously attended lectures on musicology at the Charles University. This allowed him to acquire a solid stock of knowledge, and in 1948, returning to his homeland, he was appointed conductor of the Belgrade Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Starting from 1951, Zdravkovic’s creative path is closely connected with the activities of the Belgrade Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra formed at that time. From the very beginning, Zdravkovic was its permanent conductor, and in 1961 he headed the team, becoming the artistic director of the orchestra. Numerous tours in the 1950s and 1960s brought the artist fame both at home and abroad. Zdravkovic successfully performed not only in European countries: the routes of his tours ran through Lebanon, Turkey, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, the USA, and the UAR. In 1958, on behalf of the UAR government, he organized and led the first professional symphony orchestra in the republic in Cairo.

Zdravkovic repeatedly performed in the USSR – first with Soviet orchestras, and then, in 1963, at the head of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. Soviet critics noted that the success of the Yugoslav group “great merit of its artistic director – a serious, strong-willed musician.” B. Khaikin emphasized on the pages of the newspaper “Soviet Culture” “the temperament of Zdravkovich’s conducting style”, his “enthusiasm and great artistic enthusiasm.”

Zdravkovich is a zealous popularizer of the creativity of his compatriots; almost all significant works of Yugoslav composers are heard in his concerts. This was also manifested in the programs of the Moscow tours of the conductor, who introduced the Soviet audience to the works of S. Khristich, J. Gotovats, P. Konovich, P. Bergamo, M. Ristic, K. Baranovich. Along with them, the conductor is equally attracted by the classical symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms, and the music of the French Impressionists, and the works of contemporary authors, especially Stravinsky.

L. Grigoriev, J. Platek, 1969