Marián Varga. photo: SITA |
A preview of a documentary film, 60 Years with Marián Varga, was part of the celebration. In the documentary, Varga comments on recordings of his performances from Slovak Television archives selected and edited by culture activist Ladislav Snopko and young director Marko Škop. The Slovak Television broadcast the documentary the same evening on its second channel.
"In the 1960s, when everyone wanted to prove their greatness by imitating the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, Varga came to be Varga. And he was equally good," says Snopko in the documentary.
For a long time, Varga said that he was only taking an excursion into popular music. "Now, I am realising with horror that I am 60 and I am in it," he comments in the documentary.
A native of Skalica, Varga studied composition with composer Ján Cikker and attended the Bratislava conservatory before leaving school to become an essential part of Prúdy. He enriched the guitar sound of the band with the Hammond organ, piano or cembalo as well as music borrowed from other genres and styles. In 1969, he recorded with Prúdy one of the most important albums of Slovak pop music, Zvonky zvoňte. After
The opening of a photo exhibition about Marián Varga (left) by Vladimír Yurkovič (right) was part of the celebrations in Zrkadlový Háj. photo: SITA |
His latest album is Marián Varga a Moyzesovo kvarteto, on which he plays compositions from his entire oeuvre, arranged by the young Slovak composer Marek Spusta.
Varga, who is completely unpretentious, will tour Slovakia with the Moyzes Quartet, beginning in his native Skalica on February 8. The winter part of the tour will end in Bratislava's Aréna theatre on February 25 and 26. The tour will resume in the summer, culminating at the multi-genre festival Pohoda.
To mark the musician's 60th birthday, seven remastered versions of legendary Collegium Musicum's albums recorded between 1970 and 1980 will be re-released.
By Jana Liptáková
5. Feb 2007 at 0:00
