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This is the first music I have heard by the Bulgarian composer Pancho Vladigerov. Some cursory research online backed up by the fairly brief Naxos liner reveals a musician considered to be Bulgaria's most influential composer, who rose to fame in the inter-War years. He was born in Zurich just before the turn of the 20th Century and trained in Berlin. He remained living and working in Germany throughout the 1920s before settling permanently in Bulgaria in 1932.
All three of the works recorded here pre-date that return to Bulgaria but show the strength of the musical and spiritual pull of his ancestral homeland and its influence on the music he wrote. The earliest work recorded here (all the pieces have been released elsewhere on CD) is also his most enduringly famous work - Vardar Rhapsody Op.16. There are several positives about this generously filled Naxos disc. Primarily the music itself is attractively written and brilliantly scored. Quite whether or not one wants to listen to some 75 minutes of nationalist inspired music in a single sitting might be a moot point – but I would say the same about listening to all the Dvořák Slavonic Dances in a one go or indeed an equivalent sequence of Vaughan Williams in folksong mode – and I love both of those composer's works. Perhaps my only thought would be that as a sampler of the range of Vladigerov's works, it would have been more valuable to hear one of his two violin concertos – the first premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic under Fritz Reiner no less – or one of his two symphonies. The first of these can be found on YouTube via a very scratchy transcription of an LP.
The other thing to say straight away about this new disc is how well the Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra play for the conductor Nayden Todorov. They make the absolute most of the colourful scoring and play with vibrancy, alert energy and considerable skill. Bulgarian Orchestras do not seem to have had as much exposure post the collapse of the Soviet Union as other orchestras in the region but there is a strong playing tradition – string players especially – which makes this quite surprising. Likewise the engineering of the disc is exactly what this music requires – detailed and wide ranging. I see Todorov doubles up his podium work by acting as the recording producer too. Just occasionally it feels as if the front desk of the strings is overly spotlit and the players behind lack the ideal warmth and weight but this is balanced by an earthiness and vigour that certainly suits the music.
The disc opens with the Seven Symphonic Bulgarian Dances Op.23. This is a very substantial sequence running to just shy of forty minutes. Apparently they can be performed in smaller groupings or as individual dances but as presented here they make an effective and contrasted sequence. What is not clear from Richard Whitehouse's liner is what specific material Vladigerov draws on – for a novice in Bulgarian folk music it would have been useful to understand how much of this material is Vladigerov in the style of Bulgarian nationalist music and has much was taken "from the field". Certainly there is a very clear use of pentatonic scales and sinuous melodic shapes that sounds unmistakeably like music from countries bordering the Black Sea. Indeed there are several moments when this music can sound as though something has been cribbed from Khachaturian – which is a perfectly valid comparison right up to the moment you remember that Vladigerov wrote this music a full decade before either Gayane or Masquerade!
Vladigerov does favour quite heavy scoring with colourful percussion writing – too much on occasion perhaps – to the fore. He has a penchant for using combined tuned percussion – glockenspiels alongside celesta and harp with other metallic percussion adding to the glitter. It’s effective if not that subtle. Generally Vladigerov's orchestration is along the lines of a Rimsky-Korsakov or Glazunov – late Romantic and attractive without pushing any aesthetic boundaries. The Second Dance, Allegro moderato grazioso, is a good example of just how attractively Vladigerov can score with piccolo and glockenspiel evoking a latter-day Musical Snuffbox before the music picks up tempo into something more energetically dance-like. The fourth dance, Andante con moto, suffers from too much initial use of the side-drum but is more of a miniature brooding tone poem than an obvious dance. The following Vivamente was the movement that evoked Masquerade – on reflection I wondered if Khachaturian was aware of the earlier work...? The closing dance is impressive – again lots of tuned percussion adding to the glitter but Vladigerov allows the music to build a swirling head of steam with more than a nod toward Enescu's Romanian Rhapsodies, which of course do pre-date these works by a good thirty years.
I must admit to not being engaged by the Vardar Rhapsody as much as its status as Vladigerov's most famous work would suggest I might. The alternation between stately and swift music is enjoyable but hardly original. As a self-contained composition I probably find the closing Bulgarian Suite Op.21 the most impressive. Again, at over twenty-five minutes this is a substantial work but one that feels better balanced and proportioned in and of itself. The opening Quasi Marcia has one reaching for the March of the Sardars comparison in its rather grand and stately mood. The following Chant is very atmospheric – languorously sinuous solo violin and wind melodies over a bed of exotically rich harmony. At heart this is still rather conservative music with a near cinematic lushness – although again lush film music had not entered the common music vocabulary by this time. I think I enjoyed it more because Vladigerov does allow himself to move away from the direct influence of folk music although it is clearly still evoking that style. The third movement is a swirling and energetic Chorovodna, although here the scoring is kept more pleasingly light. Which sets up the powerful and infectious closing Ratchenitza rather effectively. Here the heavy scoring returns with Vladigerov deploying a swaying 7/8 rhythm throughout. Possibly this movement succumbs to the criticism of folk music that all you can do is play it again louder, but because Vladigerov deploys a real kaleidoscope of instrumental effects he actually succeeds in bringing this work and indeed the disc to an exhilarating conclusion. For sure the playing here is not the very epitome of orchestral sophistication but it suits the music very well.
This recording seems to have been in the Naxos vaults for over three years and I am glad that it has seen the light of day. I suspect that this directly folk-inspired music is just one facet of Vladigerov's work and if indeed that is the case I would like to hear some more. I see there are some other releases – notably,a CPO disc that includes the Dance Suite and the Vardar Rhapsody. That is not a disc I have heard so I cannot make comparisons – a,brief sample via Spotify suggested a smoother (slicker?) approach by the Berlin RSO. Elsewhere I read about a Balkaton edition of the orchestral music but have not been able to track that down on CD.
All in all an interesting introduction to an important Bulgarian composer - attractive music energetically performed.
