Almost all concerts of Krassimir Gatev involved two or more diametrically opposite styles. He achieved that through a quite deep and various research of the works and their époque. He used his own method, as far as sound engineering was concerned. In an interview, preserved with the Golden Archive of the BNR, the pianist said:

“I try to hear a tone the way I want it to sound – not too roughly or softly… Not too sharply or colorlessly. I try to achieve real sound and I do not use the voicing only. I look for the variety of timbres and different colors. The unification of the thought is something logical, it is simply a result, not a tool. If we tear music into separate tones, it will start to look like the reading of separate words, with no thought about words, phrases and sentences. I have always been an opponent of empty virtuosity. This is simply a tool and not a goal. I try to listen to the music I am playing at the moment as if I am standing aside. I have turned listening to discipline and a mutual obedience of sense and feelings. One of my main rules: a musician should be able sometimes to feel with his common sense and to think with his feelings.”

“Piano is everything to me – a friend, a partner, not that pleasant sometimes, but I can’t do without it” – words of Krassimir Gatev.

The talented pianist was a tutor too, and a loved one:

“I have always found music itself to be the most important thing. I have never tried to attract attention. Sometimes I have been annoyed not by my own failures, but by the ones of other people around – this has mostly happened in cases of ensemble playing. Music has turned into my first nature through the years. It is a perfect harmony and purity of both feelings and intellect. It is something that cannot be faked…”

Contacts with many world famous music persons contributed to the growth of Krassimir Gatev as a performer. In an interview, recorded several years before his death, the pianist encountered several unforgettable moments, sharing what the taste of success was:

“A whole universe won’t be enough for all the star moments. These were the contests: Margarita Long in Paris, Queen Elizabeth in Brussels and others. My meetings with young musicians, concerts at great halls across the world, such as the one of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Milan Scala, then a plate recorded with Raina Kabaivanska… My rendition at the Tivoli Hall in Denmark, the numerous concerts that I’ve had in Belgium, Greece and other countries… Sometimes I got tired by those constant journeys, but now I miss them the most. When one settles down, the quality of his work goes down, one way or another. As far as success is concerned, it is bitter sometimes, but it can be a sweet failure too. I could say that on each failure that teaches us, if we want to. A single success or a single failure doesn’t make a person greater or smaller.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev

The audio file contains the following pieces:

1.  Tri Bagateli – Pancho Vladigerov

2.  Allegretto, Piano Sonata 3 – Alexander Scriabin

3.  Final, Orgelconcert - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.