Pancho VLADIGEROV (1899-1978)
Orchestral Works - Volume 2
Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra/Alexander Vladigerov
rec. 1970-75, Balkanton Studios, Sofia, Bulgaria
CAPRICCIO C8053 [2 CDs: 154:21]
Volume 4 in Capriccio’s 18-disc Pancho Vladigerov Edition now steps forward. This follows the issue of uniformly designed sets of spruced-up recordings of this Bulgarian composer’s piano concertos, symphonies and string concertante works. It is quite a project involving the re-animation of Bulgarian analogue tapes from the dying gasps of the vinyl era. If you must insist on more recent recordings - and Capriccio’s discs sound much better than respectable - then go for CDs on CPO (777 125-2), Naxos or Fondamenta. If you take that course, you will inevitably encounter a much smaller and narrower selection of Vladigerov’s works. That said, don’t overlook Nadejda Vlaeva’s piano solos CD recently issued by Hyperion (CDA68327).
Across 28 tracks the present collection trawls through and holds up to the light the smaller scale orchestral output of Vladigerov. The two CDs are packed to the gunwales. The music has a distinctive folk-music flair and the work-titles espouse this quite candidly. This ‘good earth’ was tilled and prepared for us in the small-scale works for solo instrument and orchestra in volume 3 and especially in the Vardar Rhapsody for violin and orchestra.
The purely orchestral version (ie. minus violin solo) of the Bulgarian Rhapsody - Vardar opens CD1. The brawny music stalks and swaggers forward then lightens up. It’s all very romantic and becomes more aery and mercurial as it swoons and sprints forward into spinning virtuoso realms. Not identical, but think in general of the nationalism and colour of the folk-inspired works of Enescu, Kodaly, early Bartók, Moyzes, Weiner and Suchon. The Seven Bulgarian Dances - each separately tracked - are essays in easy lyricism wreathed in smiles and the smoke of campfires rather than the candle-light of ballrooms. If Vardar drifts into bombast these Dances do not. Sable tones, as in the start of Dance No. 4, are lightened. There is a certain forgivable hardness to the recorded tone evident in the forte passages of Dance No. 5. Rachenitsa has a prominent role for lush solo violin. At first, it’s music aswoon. Disconcerting memories are stirred with alcoholic fumes that seem to have escaped from Malcolm Arnold’s Tam O'Shanter. It’s not long before Vladigerov finds his village dancing pumps. The four-movement Bulgarian Suite casts admiring looks towards Smetana’s Bartered Bride before it romances in the moonlight (more solo violin), steps it out in a ferality that verges on aggression. Then another Ratschenitza rushes in to a boisterous pell-mell finish with, what seemed to me, a Cuban accent.
If the first disc focuses on works of the 1920s and 1930s the second explores the next two decades. There’s no obvious linkage with world war. In fact, it’s more of the brilliant same - a carry-over from the moods of the first disc. Bulgaria is given a rest and Vladigerov pays to court to its neighbour to the North, Romania, in the Four Romanian Symphonic Dances. The movements sport conventional Italian mood and speed titles apart from the second, which is called Doina. The music repays its debt to Balkan nationalism in swaying, vividly colourful and uproarious style with triangle, bell, violin and harp highlights. It’s a very successful and convincing work and is an obvious first play to anyone unfamiliar with Vladigerov and open to the musical equivalent of evangelism. It’s followed by Two Romanian Symphonic Sketches which are in much the same dialect as the Dances; very lush again and this time not that remote from Korngold. The Balkan Dance is rhythmically alive and once again the orchestral palette is inventive and affluently exploited. The Four Waltzes date from 1931 and bear French and German titles declaring fantastic, capricious, oriental and romantic intentions which are carried through in glittering (Richard) Straussian style, occasionally with French overtones. The Danza primordiale takes us back to florid nationalistic pieces from the first of the two discs. The Foxtrot is a short piece from the 1920s but orchestrated (you cannot see the joins) by one of the composer’s pupils at the end of the 1960s. As with all of these pieces a full orchestra is well and truly engaged. Dinicu’s famous Hora staccato is arranged by Vladigerov with dues fully paid up to its spiky, swaying and dissolute capital. In addition, the listener hears some six minutes of Pancho Vladigerov speaking (and chuckling) about his Vardar ... in Bulgarian, of course. There is an English translation in the booklet.
As with the previous sets, these inevitably analogue recordings (Capriccio out of Balkanton) were produced in the 1970s in Bulgaria. Make no mistake, they still sound better than respectable and give what feels like faithful impression of brilliantly written and executed music.
Rob Barnett
Contents
CD 1
1. Rhapsody Vardar, Op 16 (version for orchestra) (1928) [8:38]
Seven Symphonic Bulgarian Dances, Op 23 (1931)
2. No 1, Festlicher Tanz [5:42]
3. No 2, Volkslied [3:40]
4. No 3, Kleiner Reigen [2:57]
5. No 4, Früh’ ist Radka aufgestanden [7:51]
6. No 5, Paidoushko [4:44]
7. No 6, Bilyana [5:55]
8. No 7, Großer Reigen [5:25]
9. Rachenitsa, Op 18 No 2 (1928) [7:33]
Bulgarian Suite, Op 21 (1927)
10. I. Quasi marcia [4:59]
11. II. Lied [7:18]
12. III. Kettentanz [5:00]
13. IV. Ratschenitza [6:44]
CD 2
Four Romanian Symphonic Dances, Op 38 (1942)
1. No 1, Molto vivace [3:40]
2. No 2, Doina. Andante sostenuto [8:56]
3. No 3, Allegro moderato [4:33]
4. No 4, Moderato. Presto [8:41]
Two Romanian Symphonic Sketches, Op 39 (1943)
5. No 1, Aria [8:25]
6. No 2, Tanz [5:35]
7. Balkan Dance, Op 46 No 3 (arr. for orchestra) (1947) [4:01]
Four Waltzes for Orchestra (1931)
8. No 1, Valse fantastique (After Op 2 No 4) [4:22]
9. No 2, Valse caprice (After Op 9 No 2) [2:36]
10. No 3, Der Tänzer aus dem Orient (After Op 10 No 2) [4:19]
11. No 4, Valse romantique (After Op 12 No 4) [4:06]
12. Danza primordiale, Op 53 No 3 (arr. for orchestra) (1950s) [7:08]
13. Foxtrot (transcr. M. Leviev for orchestra) (1969) [3:30]
14. Hora staccato (version for symphony orchestra - Dinicu/Vladigerov) (1942) [2:15]
15. Pancho Vladigerov interviewed [5:48]
