Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / SiTi Teater / Slovenia
Concert date: December 14, 2012
Attendance: 120
Ticket price: €15.00
Nana Milčinski is a firmly established name on Slovenia’s cultural and arts scene. She’s known for her long and fruitful collaboration with the Anton Podbevšek Teater from Novo mesto. That partnership has given us, for example, the productions »Hamlet 60 minut« and the one created together with Siddharta, »Livingstonov poslednji poljub« (2010).
The music for the studio album »Še ena pomlad« is Nana’s merging with the days of her childhood, which she shared with her grandfather – and he is none other than Fran Milčinski Ježek. It’s an enormously brave piece of work, a brave artistic challenge that surely gave Nana a bit of stage fright at first, as she wondered whether she’d be up to the task or not. But clearly the time of maturity had arrived, whispering to Nana that the moment was right, now! As the songs of »Še ena pomlad« took ever clearer shape through the arrangements, they paved a perfect runway that willingly awaited the landing of Nana Milčinski’s vocal exposé. An exposé of exceptional softness, a touch of flawless maidenhood, sensual tenderness and loving warmth.
SiTi Teater! It’s eight in the evening. Apparently they go to bed with the chickens in this temple of culture, which recently threw its doors wide open to acts whose sound rests mostly on an acoustic, organic tone. Even on Friday nights. Thanks to unavoidable daily obligations, we caught the show by the tail. And what a lot there was to see and experience!
Only for the second time in a row, Nana road-tested a live lineup that, alongside her vocals, featured Anže Langus Petrovič »Dagi« on bass guitar, “Plestenjak’s” Martin Štribernik on keys and accordion, and one of Slovenia’s greatest drumming wizards, Sergej Ranđelović. Guys seasoned to the bone when it comes to studio and touring mileage. A hugely powerful backing combo that rarely misses once it hits the stage. Even though they’re stage greenhorns as a unit – this lineup played its first show only recently, in Kranj. So guitarist Matej Mršnik got left at home; apparently soundchecks and rehearsals showed he wasn’t an essential cog in the live reinterpretation of the tracks from »Še ena pomlad«. Even in one of the evening’s most beautiful songs, Zamorjena pesem, you didn’t really miss the guitar, though at that point it would have been more than welcome.
Over the hour and fifteen minutes the show lasted, the quartet with Nana at the helm went through the album »še ena pomlad« from end to end, and Nana spiced up the set with recitals, among them a relived and beloved line her grandfather once gave her: »O novica mila, naša Nana je shodila«. Her brother Juš Milčinski didn’t drop out of the script either. Amid the river of romantic drifting through his sister’s wave after wave of seething emotion, he loaded the show up with humor, contributing two full-blooded stage recitals with a touch of comic satire, straight from grandpa (»Psihiatrija« and, near the end, »Birkratizem s kravato«), and coaxed smiles out of the crowd of a good 100 people, who otherwise spent most of the evening in silent hypnosis.
The stage set was elevated by a projection screen in the back, which, with the help of visuals, carried the audience through Nana’s verses to the very heart of what brings them to life. Especially emotional were the intros to the songs Sedi, sedi mi v naročje, which was written after Fran Milčinski had a falling-out with his life partner and, after the “storm” at home, went out for some fresh air and listened to the story of a passing homeless man, and right after it the intro to Božič 1944, which Fran dedicated to that same chosen one – Nana Milčinski’s grandmother, that is.
It’s hard to single out the highlights. Every song carries an extraordinary power of message, and they’re all cut in excellent harmony between the musical backdrop and the pliancy of Nana’s vocal interpretation. Nana’s gentle »whisper« touched the audience especially deeply in the completely hushed Zakaj greš mimo, Solze na oknih and Pisemce.
The band confirmed how great they felt in the encore, when they took on Dragi once more, followed by Zaljubi se v življenje. The latter in particular was played with a notch more intensity than in the regular part of the show, and a funk sentiment sparkled generously through its character, especially thanks to bassist Dagi’s bigger helping of witty melodic lines. Sergej remains the unerring shepherd of the jazz-drumming flock, shining once again with the pinpoint, Swiss-watch precision of his playing and, especially in the quietest moments of the show, proving his innate feel for softness. Martin Štribernik conjured up one of the loveliest moments of the concert, paired with a perfectly fitting interpretation from a deeply immersed Nana, once he picked up the accordion, which took over an integral part of the dialogue with Nana’s vocals in the song Sedi, sedi mi v naročje.
That good hour flew by in the blink of an eye. The quartet delivered a concert of exceptional interpretive power. They created a special musical world in the hall of SiTi Teater, a world that the album »Še ena pomlad« captured in a unique way, and one that only Nana Milčinski can bring to life. A unique and magical experience for every one of us, then, is this merging of the character and work of the great Fran Milčinski Ježek through the voice of his granddaughter. The world of this man was extraordinary, and the wealth of his artworks was far, far ahead of its time. The tooth of time can’t chip away at them. We can say that in this way Ježek’s artistic vision has gained a new dimension of full-blooded authenticity and an extraordinary tribute, which, through Nana Milčinski’s interpretation, the rest of us get to enjoy too, in a way like no other.
Setlist
1. Čakam nate…
2. Zakaj greš mimo
3. O novica mila (narration)
4. Dragi
5. Ne laže pa ne, Ciciban
6. Psihiatrija (Juš Milčinski)
7. Oj, moj fant
8. Pomlad (narration)
9. Pesem o vetru
10. Ko ura bo odbila
11. Birokratizem s kravato (Juš Milčinski)
12. Zaljubi se v življenje
13. Solze na oknih
14. Sedi, sedi mi v naročje
15. Božič 1944
16. Srce (narration)
17. Pisemce
18. Zamorjena pesem
—encore—
19. Dragi
20. Zaljubi se v življenje
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