Drago Kocakov (1908 - 1977)
Croatie
Drago Kocakov was born on August 15, 1908 in Vukovar, a small town placed on the banks of the river Danube. His mother, Maria Pivonjka, was a woman of progressive vistas and out-standing culture encouraging her children to go in for the activities that could enrich their spiritand acquire wide common education. Drago Kocakov revealed soon (shortly after first lessonsby his mother) an exceptional sense and interest in music and this was the reason why his par-ents did their best in order to enable him private lessons with professional musicians. When heenrolled secondary school, he started also with his private lessons in drawing and painting with
the painter and printmaker Dragutin Renarić (1872.
-1944.), and being his pupil for severalyears he mastered the classical techniques.In 1926, having by then a substantial knowledge in playing the violin and the piano, he leavesfor Zagreb, the capital, however not to study music or painting but the economy! (It is notknown what stood behind that decision of his). So as to be able to pay the college and other
existential needs, he was making for living by playing in cafés and similar premises which were
the public sphere of the social life of the bourgeoisie. After a while he made lot of acquaintanc-es. He made contacts with the musicians that were playing in some of many chamber ensem-bles that were active at that time in Zagreb and mostly they were playing at the salons of richapartments and houses, private and business premises and infrequently in public areas, andhe joined them. It was the milieu that suited that self-sacrificing romantic the best, as thus hewas free of tension that usually was an obstacle in public places preventing him to show off andto glitter. Playing at numerous concertinos (music events in private venues) he acquired a largehearing experience that stirred up his composing spirit. Concurrently with the study of economyand professional engagement in music he attended private classes of composition and improv-ing in the violin with several composers and violinists with whom he was a friend. He also regu-larly studied the scores of all musical styles within the classical tradition. Some titles that heplayed (at the aforementioned concertinos) as a soloist: A. Vivaldi
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Concerto for Violin andSoloists ''Quattro staggioni''; M. Bruch
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Concerto for Violin and Orch. Op.26; L. van Beethoven
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Concerto for Violin and Orch. in D major Op.61; F. Mendelssohn
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Concert for violin in E ma- jor Op.64; L. van Beethoven: Sonatas for Violin and Piano Op.30 No.2, Op.23 No.4, Op.47No.9 ''Kreutzer'', Op.12 No.2 .. However, he mostly played as a member of chamber ensem-ble. Particularly he liked to play and participated in nu
merous performances of AntonínDvořák's compositions. Kocakov was a violoniste passionné, and as far as other in
strumentsare concerned, it is generally known that he was playing the piano while he was studying the
works of other’s or while composing his own ones, and in company of his friends he played and
improvised on the guitar popular melodies they liked at that time. There is a nice statement of his daughter: ''Daddy had a very good hearing and I remember that I was always astonished athis musical gift as he was able to play me on the violin everything that I would sing!''In 1931 Kocakov completed the studies of economy and went for a certain period of time to
Prague, his mother’s native town, where he substantially widened his music horizons. Upon his
return to Zagreb all the way up until the pre end of the II World War, Kocakov was having agood time with his crew from student days. One of their adventures was a trip to the island of Rab (isola d'Arbe) and were camping in the ancient forest Kalifront, to the astonishment of thelocals that had never seen anything similar! During the winter time they went sometimes to the Alps for skiing. Once during the Second World War, they were rowing in boats along the Dan-ube from Vukovar to Belgrade, making jokes with the German soldiers on the banks. Luckilynothing happened except the anger of the soldiers that were yelling at them.. (Hide extended text) ... (Read all)
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