The long expected concert of Krassimira Stoyanova and Lyudmil Angelov is the final event in the program of Piano Extravaganza – a festival with a 4^th edition going on since September 25. This is the first joint performance of the new chamber duo, where Bulgarian musicians from a global rank perform together. Lyudmil Angelov is the art director of Piano Extravaganza, a pianist with a remarkable solo and chamber music career, a pedagogue and a festival organizer. Soprano Krassimira Stoyanova is one of the top opera voices of the modern stage. She has been a soloist of the Vienna State Opera with performances around the globe. Just a few days ago she received standing applause at the Bulgaria Hall after a concert rendition of the Othello opera, together with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio. The singing night of November 18 will take place there as well and Lyudmil Angelov gives us the details:

“I see it as a great honor to be together onstage for the first time with our magnificent Krassimira Stoyanova, who is famous worldwide – La Scala, Covent Garden, Metropolitan, Carnegie Hall etc. And of course – the Vienna State Opera, where she has been singing for years. We open our cooperation with a program, including masterpieces of the singing art. The audience will hear Italian composers during the first part – Bellini, Verdi and Respighi. Then we move on to Russian composers – Songs and Dances of Death by Mussorgsky along with several Rachmaninov romances. I think the program is interesting and the audience will appreciate it. We have recitals planned across major cultural capitals over the next two seasons. I think it will be a worthy end of Piano Extravaganza which offered this year magnificent concerts with the participation of musicians from Luxemburg, Poland, Spain, France and Bulgaria”.

The new chamber formation still lacks joint recordings, perhaps those are forthcoming. We offer now the beautiful voice of Krassimira Stoyanova in the master rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta opera:

We recorded the interview with Lyudmil Angelov a few days ago in the town of Dobrich, North Bulgaria. The national tour of another chamber duo kicked off from there – the pianist performs with famous Bulgarian violinist Vesko Panteleev Eshkenazi, a concert master of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, Holland.

“We mark the 20^th anniversary of our chamber duo this year,” Lyudmil Angelov goes on to say. “We had our initial joint concerts two decades ago and we haven’t stopped performing together ever since. These years are a significant span of a human life. However, I feel them as few, since we have so many other plans. We have the great will and joy to gather together for rehearsals – it is the meeting with someone, who thinks like you. Years ago we played in an integral manner the sonatas of Mozart, Brahms, we recorded works of Gershwin. We have works of Piazzolla and Gardel in our repertoire. We are launching a series of concerts for the joy of all our fans.”

Listen now to "An American in Paris" by Gershwin in the rendition of Vesko Eshkenazi and Lyudmil Angelov:

English version: Zhivko Stanchev