Named after a tragic violinist from the 1800s, the Franjo Krežma Concert Hall has just opened in Osijek with a performance by the Croatian Radio & Television Symphony Orchestra.
Designed to stage mainly classical music, the 400-seater auditorium has excellent acoustics and now sits behind the Vatroslav Lisinski in Zagreb as the second-biggest in the country. Its construction cost of €1.7 million was divided between the Croatian Ministry of Culture & Media, and the Ministry of Development and EU Funds.
Its Osijek-born namesake, Franjo Krežma, was admired as a violinist and composer by his stellar contemporaries, Liszt and Verdi. A child prodigy who entered the Vienna Conservatory at the tender age of nine, Krežma died when he was only 18, his surviving works and legendary violin later lost in a fire.