Dimitar Nenov: Piano Concerto & Ballade No. 2

Featuring

Emil Tabakov
Ivo Varbanov
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Dimitar Nenov

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Historical Context

After Communism was established in Bulgaria in 1944, Dimitar Nenov faced suspicion and hostility due to his bourgeois background and refusal to compose works praising the Communist Party.

Composer Biography

As an architect, Dimitar Nenov designed public buildings in Bulgaria, including railway stations and a baldachin for the St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, which later mysteriously disappeared.

Recording & Production

This album features the first commercial recording of Dimitar Nenov's Piano Concerto and Ballade No 2, with printed parts and scores commissioned by the soloist, Ivo Varbanov, as the works remain unpublished.

Historical Context

During the Communist era, all recordings of Dimitar Nenov at Bulgarian National Radio were destroyed, and his personal archive was 'cleansed'.

Composer Biography

Dimitar Nenov (1901-1953) was a polymath, excelling as a pianist, composer, architect, pedagogue, radio producer, and public figure.

Critical Reception

Aram Khachaturian, a prominent Soviet composer, criticized Dimitar Nenov's Rhapsodic Fantasy for being influenced by 'Western modernism' and exhibiting 'Impressionism, cosmopolitanism'.

Compositional Technique

Dimitar Nenov's Piano Concerto is conceived as a single continuous movement, structured as an overarching sonata form of gigantic dimensions, exceeding even those found in Mahler and Bruckner symphonies.