Pancho Vladigerov | |
|---|---|
Панчо Харaланов Владигеров | |
.jpeg) Vladigerov in 1928 | |
| Born | (1899-03-13)13 March 1899 Zürich, Switzerland |
| Died | 18 September 1978(1978-09-18) (aged 79) Sofia, Bulgaria |
| Resting place | Central Sofia Cemetery 42°42′45.3″N023°19′58.5″E / 42.712583°N 23.332917°E /42.712583; 23.332917 |
| Occupation | Composer |
| Website | vladigerov |
Pancho Haralanov Vladigerov (orWladigeroff,Wladigerow,Vladiguerov,Vladigueroff;Bulgarian:Панчо Хараланов Владигеров[ˈpant͡ʃoxɐrɐˈɫanovvɫɐdiˈɡɛrof]; 13 March 1899 – 8 September 1978) was aBulgarian composer, pedagogue, and pianist.[1]
Vladigerov is arguably the most influential Bulgarian composer of all time. He was one of the first to successfully combine idioms ofBulgarian folk music andclassical music. Part of the so-calledSecond Generation Bulgarian Composers, he was among the founding members of the Bulgarian Contemporary Music Society (1933), which later became the Union of Bulgarian Composers.[2] Vladigerov marked the beginning of a number of genres in Bulgarian music, including theviolin sonata and thepiano trio. He was also a very respected pedagogue; his students include practically all notable Bulgarian composers of the next generation, such asAlexander Raichev,Alexander Yossifov,Stefan Remenkov, and many others, as well as the pianistAlexis Weissenberg.
Vladigerov was born inZürich, Switzerland, but lived inShumen, Bulgaria.[1] His mother Dr. Eliza Pasternak was aRussian Jew. His father Dr. Haralan Vladigerov was a Bulgarian lawyer and a politician. Pancho Vladigerov played the piano and composed from an early age. In 1910, two years after his father's early death, Vladigerov and the rest of his family moved to Sofia, where Pancho started studying composition withDobri Hristov, the most distinguished Bulgarian composer of his generation.
Pancho's maternal grandfather, Leon Pasternak, a Russian Jew who left Odessa and settled in Zurich a few years before Pancho's birth, was a very influential figure in Pancho's musical development and later success. The grandfather, a mathematician by profession, and an amateur chess player,[3] musician and composer, used to play the violin with Pancho and his twin brother, Lyuben. Based on a Jewish tune his grandfather taught him, Vladigerov composed in 1951 his great symphony, the "Jewish Poem", Opus 47. This symphony received in 1952 the highest honor given by the Bulgarian Government to an artist, the Dimitrov Prize,[4] and earned him the admiration of his fellow musicians: "A work like this is written only once in a hundred years",Dmitri Shostakovich exclaimed.[4]
In 1912 Vladigerov's mother managed to obtain a governmental scholarship for her children to study inBerlin, where Pancho and his twin brother, the violinistLyuben Vladigerov, were enrolled at the Staatliche Akademische Hochschule für Musik (now part of theBerlin University of the Arts), which was under the auspices of theAcademy of Arts. Pancho Vladigerov studied music theory and composition withPaul Juon[5] and piano withKarl Heinrich Barth.[5] In 1920 he graduated from the academy after having studied piano also withLeonid Kreutzer, composition withFriedrich Gernsheim andGeorg Schumann. He twice won theMendelssohn Prize of the academy (in 1918 and 1920).
After his graduation Vladigerov became music director atDeutsches Theater in Berlin and worked with the famous theatre directorMax Reinhardt. In 1932, after much hesitation, he decided to return to Sofia, where he was appointed professor in Piano, Chamber Music and Composition at the State Academy of Music, which is now named after him.
Vladigerov composed in a variety of genres including an opera (Tsar Kaloyan, to a libretto by Nikolai Liliev andFani Popova-Mutafova),[6] ballet, symphonic music, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, chamber music including string quartet, trio (violin, cello and piano), works and transcriptions for violin and piano and numerous opuses for solo piano,[7] 38 transcriptions of instrumental pieces for instrument and piano, 13 late transcriptions of his earlier works for two pianos,[8] fifty folksong concert arrangements for voice and piano/orchestra, 20 songs for voice and piano, ten choral songs with piano/orchestra,incidental music for the performances of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, the Theater in der Josefstadt inVienna, and the National Theatre in Sofia.
Vladigerov gained considerable fame in Europe in the 1920s when many of his pieces were published byUniversal Edition in Vienna and released on LPs by the German recording companyDeutsche Grammophon before being performed throughout Europe and the USA. As pianist and composer he toured most of the European countries performing mainly his own works. In 1969 he was awarded theHerder Prize by theUniversity of Vienna. The Bulgarian recording company Balkanton released an edition of his stage and symphony music in four sets of seven LPs each; however, only a very small portion of his works is currently available on CD.
Vladigerov's music has been admired by such diverse personalities asRichard Strauss,Dmitri Shostakovich, andAram Khachaturian. It has been performed by artists such asAlexis Weissenberg,David Oistrakh,Emil Gilels,Ivan Drenikov and, most recently,Marc-André Hamelin; however, he still remains a largely unknown name except in his home country. His solo piano music has been performed in concert several times in the UK recently by Bulgarian-born pianistValentina Seferinova, who continues to champion his music.
Vladigerov's most performed and emblematic work is unquestionablyVardar Rhapsody, also known asBulgarian Rhapsody.[1] Originally written for violin and piano, it was later orchestrated and arranged for various instruments. A fiery patriotic work, it has become, in the words of an admiring critic "the Bulgarian equivalent ofChopin's Polonaise in A Major".
Pancho Vladigerov died in 1978 inSofia. His sonAlexander Vladigerov (1933–1993) and grandchildrenPancho Vladigerov Jr.,Alexander Wladigeroff, andKonstantin Wladigeroff have also become respected musicians.
Pancho Vladigerov's house at No. 10, Yakubitsa, in Sofia has been transformed into a museum.[9]
TheIntellectual Legacy of Pancho Vladigerov Foundation was founded in the autumn of 2006 by Pancho Vladigerov Jr.[10] Its main aim is to preserve, protect and popularise Pancho Vladigerov's tangible and intangible heritage.
Vladigerov's name is also preserved in the following.
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