On January 19 the Yulangelo ensemble present their new album, dedicated to celebrated Bulgarian opera singer Boris Christoff, whose centennial was marked throughout the world in 2014.

One of the top events marking the jubilee was the concert the choir gave at the Boris Christoff museum house in Sofia. It was the first time audiences were able to hear folklore and patriotic songs Boris Christoff learnt from his father, Kiril Sovichanov. Having graduated French literature in Lyon, he was a true patriot and enlightener. As an acolyte he also knew and sang many church chants; some of them have been included in the new album.

As all of Yulangelo’s projects the album was compiled after in-depth studies and the information it conveys is new even to experts in the field. Here now is Plamen Beykov, one of Boris Christoff’s last students:

“The idea for this album actually came to us while we were organizing the events marking Boris Christoff’s jubilee. We decided to focus on facts unknown to the general public about the great basso’s musical background. We found out that his father had been a performer of folk songs and a lay clerk, that throughout his life he had sought out and recorded Bulgarian songs. He sang them at home, to friends. In 1960, Academician Nikolay Kauffman met with him and recorded over 300 folklore and patriotic songs which have remained at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Institute of Musicology archives (today it is part of the Institute of Art Studies). The prominent musicologist included around 30 of them in a research paper he published. It was on the basis of this paper that we were able to compile the programme.”

The Yulangelo chamber ensemble with artistic director Joseph Guerdjikov also found the folk song Boris Christoff impressed King Boris III with. The story is well known – on Epiphany in 1942 after the traditional benediction of waters, the St. Alexander Nevski choir visited the royal palace. Boris Christoff, at the time a young lawyer, performed a song about Khan Krum. Delighted by his voice, the monarch urged the public authorities to grant him a scholarship for his studies in Italy. The start was given to Boris Christoff’s career on world opera stages.

“It really thrills me to be performing all songs in the album,” Plamen Beykov goes on to say. “My colleagues are very excited as well. The lyrics and the melodies are especially poetic, they have a history and convey a special intensity. Legend of Khan Krum the Terrible is a veritable emotional challenge every time. We had so little to go on, we knew that the lyrics and the melody had been lost. But I happened to chance upon the sheet music at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Rome, where I was paying a visit in connection with the centenary. All Yulangelo members learnt so much during our studies of the songs. We came in contact with the incredible patriotic atmosphere that reigned in the home of my tutor. Our meetings mostly focused on artistic and professional problems. We now know the source of Boris Christoff’s deep love of Bulgaria and his feeling of dedication to his country. I am still steeped in this atmosphere.”

At the concert in the ceremonial hall of the St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia, the unique concert programme will be accompanied by a lecture. The Sveta Troitsa (Holy Trinity) ensemble with conductor Eliyanka Mihailova will join their colleagues from Yulangelo.

The audio file features the following works:

-  Antiphon of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin;

-  Bright Sun setting, soloist Yulian Perikliev;

-  Legend of Khan Krum the Terrible, soloist Plamen Beykov;

-  Look, what beauty. 

English version: Milena Daynova