About

Vienna based pianist Hrvoje Jugovic was born in Zagreb.
He has recorded several award winning CDs, amongst others the Complete Piano Trios by Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn which was awarded Recording of the Month at Musicweb International, and about wich Brian Reinhart wrote: „This CD set is a total winner… in spirited performances that deliver the music at its finest… Mendelssohn on period instruments, it doesn’t get much better than this“. Albert Hosp concurs: „Music making with dedication, technical flawlessness and the courage to create a sound palette from honey-sweet to hot, from gently tender to robust and coarse.“ (ORF, CD of the day). He was also nominated for the Austrian Classic Amadeus Award for his CD of Pleyel Trios.

After obtaining piano concert diplomas in Zagreb and Vienna, Hrvoje Jugovic studied fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson at master classes at Cornell University (NY, USA) and in Belgium. He performs as a soloist and with chamber music groups on historic pianos with repertoire focused on music of the 18th and 19th century.

The search for a synthesis between period pianos and corresponding musical works has become a driving force for his curiosity and his urge to research. But playing the piano is also an encounter and discussion with colleagues and their own approaches to composers and compositions. By asking questions about how the music must have sounded while being current new and fresh, how it must have sounded to the period audience, Hrvoje Jugovic is searching for ways to make his music speak. This implies spontaneity, unusual ideas and the courage to take risks. To quote Nicolaus Harnoncourt: „To be beautiful, music has to be at the very edge of the catastrophe“.

During the last years he performed at festivals like Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, Mozart Festival Augsburg, Geelvinck Fortepiano Festival Zutphen / Amsterdam, Settimana Mozartiana Chieti, Varazdin Baroque Festival, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Zagreb Baroque Festival, at the opening ceremony of the major Albertina exhibition MOZART 2006 in the Vienna Hofburg, Salzburg Residenz, Vienna Musikverein in Dubai and Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) and also as soloist with the chamber orchestras Capella Istropolitana (Bratislava) and the Croatian Chamber Orchestra. Current projects include concerts and recordings as a soloist and with guitarist Edin Karamazov (piano – guitar duos) and fortepianist Michael Tsalka (fortepiano music for four hands).

Hrvoje Jugovic has recorded CDs for Brilliant Classics (Mendelssohn Piano Trios), Gramola (Mozart Piano Concertos no. 12, 13 & 14 and Pleyel Piano Trios), Aulos (Vanhal Piano Concerto) and Radio & TV recordings for ORF, Radio Stephansdom (Austria), NDR (Germany), HRT (Croatia) and for Romanian TV.