“Music. Music is my life. I dedicated my life to it. Through it I express my emotions, my thoughts…” These words belong to a child. About ten years old, big brown eyes. Archive footage opens the documentary Return to Belgrade, that Stéphanie Argerich and Jörg Brockmann shot it for France 2 around violinist Nemanja Radulovic in 2009 in her native Serbia, where she was born on October 18, 1985, in Nis, “the second most important city after the capital”states the 39-year-old met in Paris on October 24 in the Radio Classique studios.
A few days earlier, the musician officiated at the Salle Gaveau in Paris for a concert to benefit the association. Capital letter from childhoodwho work against child abuse. In the program, the demanding ones Violin Sonata, by César Franck, the restless Romanian dances, by Béla Bartok, in duet with pianist Stéphanie Fontanarosa. On the one hand, a gem of French music, played with emotion, economy of means and outstanding sound work. On the other hand, the mastery of the wild virtuoso whose energy transcends every stroke of the bow, every note. All in all, a charisma, generosity and charm that made Nemanja Radulovic a media figure.
The attacks in Belgrade
The “Man from the North” (the Serbian translation of his first name) comes from a music-loving, middle-class family, a doctor mother, a computer scientist father. “My mother’s was in Austro-Hungarian territory, my father’s was under Ottoman rule. My two older sisters and I were raised to believe that the world belonged to everyone. I still don’t understand why these ideas aren’t shared more. » Jelisaveta and Danica play the cello, he is interested in the piano, but it is the violin that the jury responsible for examining the musical abilities of the 7-year-old boy intends. The first concerts two years later. “I always liked to sing in public, I had no stage fright. Even today, I love to see the joy on people’s faces”he confesses.
With Dejan Mihailovic (1932-2016), former student of David Oïstrakh (1908-1974) in Moscow, the young man trained at the prestigious Russian (Soviet) violin school. First in Saarbrücken, Germany, then in Belgrade. A journey quickly marked by competitions and rewards. Nemanja Radulovic was 13 years old when NATO planes dropped their bombs on the Serbian capital on March 24, 1999. Music is an antidote to fear. “There was no school anymore, so me and my sisters had fun deciphering sheet music. » The following fall, after seventy-eight days of war, the Radulovics decided to go into exile. Germany has suspended visas, it will be France.
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