RTS Choir

Originating from the rich choral singing tradition, from the very spirit and foundation of the culture of the nation that saved it’s legends and mythology about it’s existence from oblivion through singing, the Choir of the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation appeared before audience on a concert some six decades ago and established it’s position as the leading professional vocal group, acknowledged well outside of this country’s borders.

The first steps of this ensemble were made under the leading hand of experience, the conductors Milan Bajsanski and Svetolik Pascan about whose achievements a well known critic Branko Dragutinovic wrote: ‘’The concert of the RTS Choir meant final affirmation of this, certainly the best choir group in our country. All of three consisting groups of the Choir, male, female and mixed choir have shown vocal material of extremely high sound quality, with harmonized color and homogenous sound, precise pronunciation, stability of intonation, strong rhythm and great scale of dynamic range. It is a vocal instrument technically precise and musically refined, capable of producing solid and convincing performance of the most complex choir compositions under the hand of Choir master conductor Svetolik Pascan’’./Daily Politika, April 24, 1949/.

Thirty years long and determined work of chief conductor Borivoje Simic brought the Choir to full perfection as confirmed by numerous critics’ reviews and overjoyed audiences.

Important tours of the Choir in Italy, France, Hamburg, Romania, Russia during the seventies’ of the last century provoked an avalanche of positive echoes: ‘’What a great achievement! What a performing gift! Great pleasure to listen to! …(Corriere Lombardo» - Milano)...;’’The secret of total harmony of performance...it seems to be in magnificent harmony of voices, in a refined, excellent and strong leading of the conductor…(Corriere della sera» - Milano); ’’Well nurtured sound calls for open admiration…’’ (Die Welt – Hamburg).

The successful work of the Choir also continued under the leading hands of conductors Mladen Jagust, Vladimir Kranjcevic and Bojan Sudjic.

The significant achievements of the RTS Choir also include performances of the most complex works of classical and oratorio literature of European and Serbian music (Bach’s Passions, Magificate, Handel and Hajdn’s oratorios, Passion by Luke by K. Penderecky, ’’The wedding’’ by Stravinsky, Beethoven’s Mass solemnis, Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’s German requiem, The poems of space by LJ. Maric, P. I. Tchaikovsky’s liturgies, S. Rachmaninov and S. Mokranjac).

The Choir of Radio Television of Serbia had extraordinary successful performances on numerous tours both locally and internationally: in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Great Britain, France, FR Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Greece and Russia. The guest performance of the RTS Choir in Rome (Italy), where it performed Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem with Choir and Orchestra of St. Cecilia Academy and Mstislav Rostropovich as conductor, in 1987, merits special mention. So, does the Choir’s guest performance in Naples (Italy), where it performed Parsifal by R. Wagner, with the Teatro San Carlo Orchestra and conductor Gustav Kuhn in 1988, and also two guest performances in Spain, where it performed two capital works of Johan Sebastian Bach Christmas Oratorio and Passion by Mathew, with the Symphony Orchestra of Radio Television of Serbia in 1989, and 1991. While giving a speech on the occasion of presenting the “October Prize”, an award of the City of Belgrade given to the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation’s Mixed Choir for the concert and recording of the entire opus of Stevan Mokranjac in 1981, the composer Enrico Josif said the following: ’’The RTS Choir deserves permanent credits for solid performance and confirmation of existing values as well as for discovering and enlightening new beauties of domestic creativity. This contribution remains crucial, unavoidable, and determining for fundamental valuation of artistic works of vocal and vocal-instrumental accomplishments in our country.’’