Fran Lhotka

After he had done his military service, and worked for a short time as a teacher in a branch of the Moscow conservatory in Yekaterinoslav (today Dnipro, Ukraine, once part of the Russian Empire), he arrived in Zagreb, in 1909,[1] and accepted the job of first hornist and rehearsal pianist in the Opera.

The increasingly better organisation of the concert scene and the reform of musical education made Zagreb an apt place for young composers to make a name for themselves.

His lectures were attended by some of the most important Croatian composers and musicians of the future period - Ivo Brkanović, Bruno Bjelinski, Krešimir Kovačević, Stjepan Šulek and Slavko Zlatić.

He also conducted the orchestra of the Music Academy (1922 – 1941) and for a short time the choir too, regularly winning lauds in Zagreb and in guest appearances, particularly for his championing of the performance of works by domestic composers, but also for the presentation of the masterpieces of the world repertoire.

Lhotka found himself in the midst of the revolutionary Western European novelties and freedoms typified by the works of Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, Béla Bartók and Alexander Scriabin and of the increasing dominance of the “national course” in music.

With them he produced Đavo u selu, balada o jednoj srednjovjekovnoj ljubavi / Devil in the Village, Ballad of a Middle Aged Love and The Bow.

How successful it was can be seen from further performances Europe-wide: Karlsruhe, Prague, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Dresden, Vienna, Genoa, Sofia, Athens and Salzburg.