Petar Delchev is a violinist with a comparatively brief career as a performing musician. His dazzling success as a child and teenager was followed by dozens of concerts in this country and abroad. He is the only Bulgarian to have ever won the Paganini competition in Genoa twice.

Regrettably, Petar Delchev was unable to follow through many of his dreams. Different problems pushed him to leave Bulgaria. He now lives in Italy with his family and he says there are two things he misses – the violin and Bulgaria. Poor health has stopped him from travelling, for the same reason he has not played the violin since 2004. He has made many recordings for the Bulgarian National Radio and Radio Cologne, among them some truly brilliant renditions.

Petar Delchev has been soloist of all famous orchestras in Bulgaria, he has played with some of the most prominent conductors – Dobrin Petkov, Konstantin Iliev, Vassil Kazandjiev. When he was still very young, he had 20 concerts in Italy with the Academic Orchestra, conducted by Alipi Naydenov. He won his first major competition – Jaroslav Kocian in the Czech Republic at the age of 14.

“I was practically a child. The age limit was 18, so there were violinists much older than me taking part. I won first prize and was given a glass cup that was so heavy I almost dropped it. The violin they gave me was superb. With that violin I won the Paganini prizes – I took part in the competition some time later in two consecutive years. The first time I was 17, but according to the competition rules only people over 18 could take part. So, my tutor Konstantin Zidarov took steps and we were given special permission. That was in 1967. Competition was really strong, there were many musicians of the Russian school who grabbed all the prizes. I came fourth. The following year I took part again. By that time I was a student in the class of Prof. Vladimir Avramov and he insisted that I try again. But again I came fourth. The second time round I was competing with violinists from the top music schools in USA.”

Petar Delchev took part in a great many other competitions which brought him invitations to perform in Bulgaria and abroad. After all this his career took a downturn and he had to start playing in restaurants in Sofia for a living. He made up his mind to go to Germany.

“For one year I worked with the Symphony Orchestra in Stuttgart,” says Petar Delchev. “One night opportunity knocked. I was playing at a restaurant when an elderly gentleman from Germany came up to me. We struck up a friendship and he invited me over, he lived near Stuttgart. He helped me get in touch with the orchestra and they scheduled an audition after which they told me I could start the next morning. But I wanted to come back to Bulgaria to make arrangements to bring my family over, so they agreed to wait. Later I won a competition for the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. I worked there for 15 years. Next to me sat Klaus Girsch, a violinist but he was also a remarkable pianist. In 1983 we recorded a CD together for Radio Cologne.”

Petar Delchev had to give up the violin early on. His wife believes that it was the stress connected with the competitions he took part in and his touring at an early age that proved ruinous to his mental health and caused his subsequent health problems. “We are sharing his story with the express purpose of letting parents and teachers know what an enormous responsibility they bear, that they should be very careful to protect children’s psyche,” Mrs Delcheva says.

If we have aroused your interest, you can find more video recordings by Petar Delchev in the social media – everything he has ever recorded on tape or CD.

The audio file features:

- La Campanella by Paganini, Assia Zlatkowa piano;

- Chaconne by Bach;

- Love magic by Manuel de Falla, Klaus Girsch piano;

- Hungarian dance by Brahms, Klaus Girsch piano.

English version: Milena Daynova