Pavel Balev and Varna Symphony Orchestra unveil Easter Music Festival programme

On 20 March, the Symphony Orchestra of the Varna State Opera will open the 25th Easter Music Festival under the baton of its principal guest conductor, Pavel Balev. One day earlier, on 19 March, the same programme will be performed in Ruse as part of the 65th edition of the prestigious March Music Days International Festival.

One of the most distinguished Bulgarian musicians on today’s podium, Pavel Balev is an artist of international renown, admired for the depth and inspiration of his interpretations. He is Chief Conductor at the Opéra de Limoges in France, General Music Director at the Theater Nordhausen in Germany, Music Director at L’Académie de l’Orchestre National de Cannes and Principal Guest Conductor at the Baden-Baden Philharmonic. Pavel Balev is applauded throughout the world, from the United States to China, but he holds his appearances in Bulgaria in particularly high esteem. In recent years, Varna has become the city in which he conducts most frequently.

Pavel Balev’s symphonic concerts with the Orchestra of the Varna State Opera are consistently greeted with enthusiasm by audiences and praised by critics for the insight of their interpretations and the refinement of their detail. It is in this spirit that the latest programme has been conceived.

The programme opens with Claude Debussy’s elegant Petite Suite, followed by Bohuslav Martinů’s virtuoso Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra, featuring Marian Kraev and Krasimir Shterev as soloists. Mr Kraev has been leader of the Munich Symphony Orchestra since 2002, while Mr Shterev has held the same position at the Varna State Opera since 2009. In keeping with his principle of including a landmark Bulgarian work in each of his symphonic concerts, Pavel Balev brings the evening to a close with Lyubomir Pipkov’s Symphony No. 1.

As Pavel Balev observes, a distinctly French thread runs through the programme. Debussy reflects the refined world of French painting and poetry; Martinů stands among those singular composers whose musical imagination was deeply shaped by the artistic life of Paris; and Lyubomir Pipkov, likewise formed by the French school, asserted in his First Symphony a new Bulgarian compositional voice of unmistakably European outlook.

Balev also notes that the Bulgarian musicians with whom he has prepared this programme approach it with both understanding and affection, and thus succeed in bringing before audiences enduring works from the classical tradition.

This concert marks the opening of the Easter Music Festival and is an important part of the celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Orchestra of the Varna State Opera. The orchestra is the successor to the Varna State Symphony Orchestra, which was founded in 1946.

Editor: Elena Karkalanova

Edited and posted in English by E. Radkova