One of the most influential musicians of the early beat generation of the 60s in communist Czechoslovakia, Marián Varga and his famous Hammond playing died 6 months after a big concert tribute held for him on his 70th birthday.

Fedor Frešo /bs/, his longest-serving companion had rung Vladislav months before and they met at Galileo pub. They ordered their drinks, lit up cigarettes and Fedor said: “Listen,.. Marián is going to celebrate his 70th birthday and we will make a concert for him. He can’t play anymore, so you will play his parts on the Hammond. Everyone will be thinking that I have gone mad, that it’s a terrible idea and you can’t hold a candle to Marián, but we will still do it. Alright?”. Vladislav said: “OK, give me the materials and one week to make my mind up.”

That year in summer he performed Marián’s work onstage with Collegium Musicum (a legendary Czechoslovak art-rock band), which had been founded by Fedor Frešo and Marián in the 60s.The day before the concert it was clear that Marián was not feeling well. He returned home from a Prague hospital and fell asleep with only 30 per cent of his lungs functioning well.
Anton Popovič (a producer, musician and a conductor) who was in charge of conducting the concert asked Vladislav to do the rehearsal and that moment went down in history.It was the very first time when Collegium Musicum
played a gig without Marián Varga.

The concert was a resounding success.
On an April day hit by a violent snowstorm, Marián came in on a wheelchair and with oxygen tubes in his nose he performed his most popular song – Ommage á J.S.Bach. Then he sat in a leather sofa, lit up his Cuban cigar and drank a glass of whisky. Nearly every musician of his era came to pay a homage, with the audience giving him his last applause. After his death, a commemorative concert is held in Skalica every year on his birthday, where musicians keen on experimenting find unknown variations on his songs.