23 July, 7:00 PM Festival and Congress Centre, Hall 1
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Nayden Todorov
Soloists Alexander Wladigeroff – trumpet/flugelhorn and Konstantin Wladigeroff – piano/clarinet
Works and arrangements by Pancho Wladigeroff and Wladigeroff Brothers
Vesselin Stoyanov – Symphony Nо1
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra will perform a special all-Bulgarian program on the landmark date for the “Varna Summer” Festival. It was July 23rd, 100 years ago when the very first festive concert of (then named) “Summer Musical Celebrations” took place in Varna. This is a historic date for the Guards Orchestra as well, the predecessor of the Sofia Philharmonic, which participated in that original program. In 1926, the repertoire included works by Dobri Hristov and Pancho Wladigeroff, alongside a lecture on Bulgarian music; now, Wladigeroff’s music returns through transcriptions by his grandsons, Konstantin and Alexander, themselves talented and established musicians. You will hear a new take on the song that Pancho Wladigeroff embedded as a theme in his Third Piano Concerto, or “Fairytale” from Pictures for Piano in an orchestral version featuring a solo trumpet.
Both the Wladigeroff brothers and conductor Nayden Todorov are Vienna-trained. Just as our great composers once studied in Europe’s major centers and returned to Bulgaria, today their global experience shapes Bulgarian musical life according to the European model. Under Nayden Todorov’s leadership, the Sofia Philharmonic has regularly partnered with world-leading soloists in recent years, offering seasons rich in repertoire and completing prestigious tours in Paris and Berlin. For this specially curated “Varna Summer” concert, Nayden Todorov adds the First Symphony by Vesselin Stoyanov, another Vienna alumnus (who studied composition with Franz Schmidt and piano with Victor Ebenstein and Paul de Conne). Stoyanov composed this symphony relatively late, at age 60, and it has been rarely performed since its premiere. Mature and rich, the work is built as a grand single-movement form, alternating contrasting sections filled with vivid expressiveness, lyrical moments, and soaring exaltation—all developed with the grand, colorful flair typical of Vesselin Stoyanov, a key figure of the second generation of Bulgarian composers.
