Symphonic prelude "The Magic Island" by William Alwyn, Piano Concerto No.21 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Anatoly Liadov’s Enchanted Lake, as well as Alexander Borodin's Symphony No. 2 - these are the works included in the concert of the Sofia Philharmonic today, January 31st. In its 90th season the national orchestra has invited some famous names. Conductor this time is Leo Hussain (director of the Orchestra de l'Opéra de Rouen Normandie) and soloist at the piano concert is Elena Bashkirova.

The remarkable pianist has graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with her famous father Dmitriy Bashkirov - one of the legends of Russian pedagogical school. He had also taughta number of Bulgarian pianists including Plamena Mangova and Victoria Vassilenko. In the late 1970s, Bashkirova left the Soviet Union together with her first husband, Gidon Kremer. Since then she has been a soloist to almost all of the leading orchestras in the world and has worked with conductors such as Sergiu Celibidache, Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, and Daniel Barenboim whom she has been married to since the late 1980s, Elena Bashkirova is the founder of the International Chamber Music Festival in Jerusalem, which is held annually in September with the participation of elite musicians. The festival has become so popular that it began to be placed on stage in Berlin, Paris, London, Vienna, New York and others. The Mozart concert, which the famous pianist will perform in Sofia's Bulgaria Hall, is one of the most popular in the genre.

English: Alexander Markov