During the mid 90's, I lived in Bulgaria and worked in the Peace Corps mission there. During that time, I immersed myself in Bulgarian culture especially, the rich musical traditions of this wonderful country.
In the capital Sofia, the Union of Bulgarian Composers had a retail store and I must've purchased 30 LP's that state recording company Balkanton had produced in cooperation with the UBC. During the socialist years, UBC members were virtually guaranteed performances and recordings if they produced a body of work deemed acceptable by the State. That said, some works on these recordings are admittedly banal while others are genuine achievements and they really need to be heard by a wider audience.
I've chosen works by four composers and these compositions date from the first half of the 20th century.
Petko Stainov - Thracian Dances; Boyan Ikonomov - Pastorale & Shar Mountain; Parashkev Hadjiev - Violin Concerto and Georgi Atanassov's First Symphony. The last entry is of special importance since it is billed as the first symphony ever by a Bulgarian composer.
In all of these works, you will hear echoes of Richard Strauss, Debussy, and Prokofiev. The Atanassov symphony itself, is a fine candidate for a modern performance; maybe a company like CPO can explore it? I hope that you, the listener, will find my program enjoyable. I picked and chose diverse works, from three different records, which add up to a very generously filled cd. The recordings all feature the UBC logo, as seen above, on the cover. No details are given on recording dates but I would venture to guess between 1970 and 1980 since all are stereo but not digital.
Enjoy!
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