Pancho Vladigerov - Orchestral Works

Pancho VLADIGEROV (1899-1978)

Bulgarian Rhapsody, “Vardar.” 

Traumspielsuite. 

Bulgarian Dances 

Berlin RSO

Horia Andreescu

Bulgarian-Jewish composer Pancho Vladigerov was born in Zurich in 1899, but his family moved to his father's native country when he was still a youth, and thus the mature composer's music is imbued with the expressive melodies, propulsive rhythms, and vibrant colors of Bulgaria. On this 2005 CPO disc, Vladigerov's art is represented by three orchestral works from his twenties and early thirties: the muscular Bulgarian Rhapsody from 1928 named "Vardar" after Macedonia's greatest river, the dreamy Traumspiel Suite from 1921, and the infectious Seven Bulgarian Dances from 1931. To some, Vladigerov's music with its sweetness and sentimentality and its energy and exuberance may sound less like a cousin of Béla Bartók than like the brother of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Brilliantly performed by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and persuasively conducted by Bulgarian Horia Andreescu, Vladigerov's music may appeal more to listeners looking for another Steiner than for another Janácek, but it is still well worth hearing. Recorded in the venerable Jesus-Christus Kirche in Berlin, CPO's sound here is as deep and detailed as the finest ever made by DG back in the '60s.

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Hard on the heels of Hungaroton 32301, a release of his early-chamber works, comes this collection of orchestral music from Pancho Vladigerov (1899–1978). The composer was a Romantic whose music combined a penchant for Impressionistic harmonies with easily accessible nationalistic rhythms and melodic material. Vladigerov made his mark composing incidental music at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin. He returned to Bulgaria in 1932, where he joined the staff of the Sofia Music Academy, and remained a staff fixture until his retirement 40 years later, submerged beneath innumerable state prizes. The Bulgarian Communist regime favored his music: conservative, colorful, atmospheric, emotionally undemanding, ingeniously composed, and technically consummate fluff.

The three pieces on this album give a good idea of his strong suit. “Vardar” began life as a 1922 work for violin and piano, performed in Germany by Vladigerov, an outstanding pianist, and his virtuoso violinist twin brother, Liuben. It was a tremendous success; six years later, the composer's orchestral arrangement received an identical response at the First International Festival of Bulgarian Music. Vladigerov subsequently rearranged it for solo piano, piano four hands, and two pianos. The piece's popularity isn't difficult to understand when one takes into account its similarity to Enescu's pair of Romanian rhapsodies from 1901 and 1902. Like those pieces, “Vardar” is essentially a well-chosen arrangement of memorable folk themes, westernized for the tourist trade.

The Bulgarian Dances date from 1931 and follow the same aesthetic convention. In his liner notes, Eckhardt van den Hoogen makes the point that if the First and Fifth Dances were replaced with something slightly jazzy, the whole effort might pass as something from Broadway, but that surely takes matters too far. There are deft Bulgarian and Impressionistic touches throughout each of the seven dances, often transforming the character of the originals while producing something more slightly distinctive and original than “Vardar.”

The third work on this album is interesting in that it reveals a different Vladigerov, the young Reinhardt composer, invariably submerged beneath the creator of Bulgarian picture postcards. The Traumspielsuite derives from incidental music to a 1921 production of Strindberg's A Dream Play . It is a charmer, owing much stylistically to the likes of Korngold and his contemporaries, but none the worse for it. The six extended pieces convey a broad range of emotional content, from the ethereal Prologue to the noble but weary-footed tread of the Promotions March, to the witty, gossamer fabric of the Ballet Music and the colorful charm of the Swedish Dance.

Andreescu is capable of great warmth and a refined sense of phrasing. I've admired his work over the years in Glazunov, Enescu, Rogalski, and Socor. He has never been a precipitate conductor, and that hasn't changed in his sixth decade; one doesn't go to him for flash. On the other hand, his “Mar, Dimitro Lio” and “Radka” movements (from the Bulgarian Dances ) are richly detailed and rhythmically flexible, while the Traumspielsuite shows the range of color and dynamics he can persuasively evoke from the Berlin RSO, where he's principal conductor these days. More subtlety might be welcome, but this is not the kind of music that really gains much from that. Sound is good, without too much reverberation to cover the beauty of Vladigerov's orchestration.

If you enjoy Khachaturian's folk ballets, chances are you'll really like Vladigerov's music on this album.

Barry Brenesal