A Bulgarian tour of Alexander and Konstantin Wladigeroff begins today during which they are going to present their new album The Rag Waltz Time. The first concert will be in Stara Zagora followed by Shumen and Plovdiv and the final concert is due on 23 April in Sofia at Sofia Live Club.

The Rag Waltz Time is in fact a pun that mirrors the mixing of ragtime and waltz in the composition written by Konstantin Wladigeroff. Work on the album began in early 2016. Konstantin wrote most of the pieces. Recording sessions took place in Sofia and also in Vienna where the Wladigeroff twins have been living for decades.

 “When an idea emerges we try to enrich and develop it with every rehearsal and with every concert until we decide that it is time to record it”, explains Konstantin. “The musicians involved in this album are 19 in total. Apart from our regular partners there are colleagues with whom we have not worked in Vienna. For example, this is the first time we have recorded music with kaval (wooden flute) player Nedyalko Nedyalkov. A newcomer is also tubist Jonathan Sass from New York who plays his instrument in one of the pieces. We also invited percussionist Maximilian Mohn and Navid Djawadi (double bass) with whom we had not made recordings either. I would like to mention our dear friend, saxophonist Hristo Goleminov, the grandson of composer Marin Goleminov. He lives in Portugal but we had concerts in Bulgaria last year. With him we recorded the first composition in the new album. For some time we have been working jointly with a singer, accordionist and multi-instrumentalist from Serbia, Bozhidar Radenkovic. He takes part in the piece Balkan Swiss Twist. I should also mention Bulgarians Stoyan Yankoulov, Vladimir Karparov, cellist Linda Mancheva, as well as Dimitar Karamitev, kaval. We work with them very often.”

Trumpet player Alexander and pianist Konstantin are grandsons of the great Bulgarian composer Pancho Wladigeroff and sons of Alexander Wladigeroff, a conductor, composer and pianist.

“We were happy to have so much love in the family”, Alexander says. “We were brought up with music. This has been a divine present for us. Our grandfather worked by mixing West European means of expression with the Bulgarian beats and melodies. We plan to record our arrangements of his works where we find jazz elements. In the current album we have included his God's Chain Dance written in when Pancho Wladigeroff was back to Bulgaria from Germany (where he studied and worked). Apart from God's Chain Dance we recorded one of his ratchenitsa dances with our sister Ekaterina - this is another of our projects. The repertoire of this trio can be called The Unknown Wladigeroff because it includes works that Pancho Wladigeroff write mostly for Deutsches Theater in Berlin - music to the theater shows of Max Reinhardt. Pancho Wladigeroff's work is such a great source of ideas and music. The arrangement that Konstantin made of God's Chain Dance was called Grande Dance En Rond. I hope listeners will like this idea.”

Music: new Wladigeroff Brothers album

1. The Rag Waltz Time

2. Balkan Swiss Twist

3. Grande Danse En Rond

English version: Daniela Konstantinova