This year, the now traditional European Cultural Days are taking place in Frankfurt October 15 - December 12. This year’s focus is on the national culture of Bulgaria under the motto Colourful Bulgaria. The concert that will officially open the festival is in the hands of the Cantus Firmus Music agency. Here is more from its Executive Director Vassil Dimitrov:

“This is a festival organized by the European Central Bank since 2003. The idea is for each edition of the festival to highlight the culture of one of the EU member countries. This year the focus is on Bulgaria, so the event is organized jointly with the Bulgarian National Bank. For Cantus Firmus and for the Classic FM orchestra this invitation shows the appreciation of our work. We are honoured to be organizing four of the events that are part of the festival. The selection of the programme for the official opening was made so as to show up Bulgarian musical culture in the best possible light.”

It took a long time to prepare for the festival – since May 2013. The line-up is ready, and the minutest of details surrounding the transportation of the 83 participants in the opening concert has been cleared up. The concert will be conducted by Grigor Palikarov. Here is what he says:

“We pooled our efforts and the result is a well-balanced programme that will be performed at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, where I have been fortunate enough to have conducted concerts on several occasions. It has a wonderful atmosphere, I expect the concert hall to be filled to capacity (an audience of some 3,000) and our performance to become a landmark event. We shall be playing Pancho Wladigeroff ’s Bulgarian Rhapsody Vardar, but have also chosen to perform his Piano Concerto No. 3. Lyudmil Angelov, a wonderful pianist has interpreted it many times with different orchestras and conductors but this is the first time we shall be playing it together. It was only natural to include Petko Staynov’s Ruchenitsa from his Thracian Dances Suite. Our second soloist, mezzo-soprano Nadya Krusteva chose to sing the Aria of Efrosina from Momchil by another renowned Bulgarian composer - Lyubomir Pipkov. We have also included arias from the operas Andrea Chénier, Adriana Lecouvreur, Carmen and the operetta the Bat. Our second concert will be on October 18. I like to work with young talents. We have performed together with Elin Kolev (violin) and Victoria Vassilenko (piano) on many occasions. In view of the fact we shall be playing with a chamber orchestra, we chose Bach’s Concerto in D minor and two of Vivaldi’s seasons. The programme will also feature a Bulgarian work – Harvest and Dance from Miniatures for String Orchestra by Marin Goleminov. I think that when one is presenting Bulgarian culture, the selection must be of genuine masterpieces. I hope the programme will be enjoyable for the audience.”

The concerts will be recorded and aired by hr2, the German culture channel for the province of Hessen. Cantus Firmus is also preparing two jazz concerts on November 27 and 28 with the participation of the Angel Zaberski trio, Vassil Petrov and the Bulgarian Brass Quintet. The European Cultural Days in Frankfurt also feature the Children’s Choir of the Bulgarian National Radio, the Sofia Puppet Theatre and Dragostin Folk National with conductor Stefan Dragostinov; there will also be a lecture on Thracian civilization by Dr. Todor Chobanov from Sofia Municipality with photographs and replicas for an exhibition of our Thracian heritage. The colourful festival programme will wind up with a performance of Neshka Robeva’s ensemble called Midsummer Mystery.

English version: Milena Daynova