Vrana Palace, the former royal residence, is situated only 9 kilometers to the east of the Sofia city center. In 2001 former Bulgarian Premier Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Princess Maria Luisa granted the park and asector of the palace to Sofia Municipality, in order to launch a museum, a record office and specialized library dedicated to the history of the Royal dynasty. From September 12 until September 14 masterpieces from the world music treasury will sound in the wonderful nature park of Vrana Palace. Share the Music Festival presents three renowned conductors to the audience in three consecutive evenings. We learn more details from Monika Alexandrova’s interview with the Director of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra Yavor Dimitrov.

The future event will be a premiere in this country. The idea of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sofia Municipality is to launch a new stage before the Day of Sofia (September 17) with mainly symphonic music. This project is similar to the Nights in the park of the National Military Academy organized by the State Opera. The idea was actually born after a conversation with Sofia Mayor Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova.  The program in the first day includes performance to the participation of the head conductor of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra Martin Panteleev and popular Bulgarian soprano Vera Girginova.

Martin Panteleev’s piece entitled The Island is also part of the program of the first festive night. Here is what Yavor Dimitrov told Radio Bulgaria:

“We included this piece in the repertoire of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra some time ago and the audience liked it a lot. This piece features our head conductor as a composer. He has a substantial experience in this field abroad. Martin is an author who directs his pieces towards the fans of humane music. It has a romantic taste mixed with impressionistic elements.”

Vrana Palace is still in a process of conservation. That is why, the concerts will be held on an open-air stage in the royal park. Unfortunately, this would affect the maximum number of the audience which is brought down to 350 people only.

“The second night of the festival aims at organizing a meeting between different music generations - the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and Pioneer Philharmonic Orchestra under the conductorship of Maxim Eshkenazy. We carried out this project successfully in Bulgaria Hall. Now we want to prove again that the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra is an institution which provides assistance to its young colleagues. The third night of the festival includes performance of Svetoslav Obretenov National Philharmonic Choir. The show is dedicated to the 70^th anniversary of this choir. The final concert of Share the Music festival will be held under the conductorship of Ljubka Biagioni, accompanied by soloists Marta Torbidoni (Italy) and tenor Mihail Mihaylov. I hope that we will enjoy three great evenings under the night sky with an audience which is a fan of the classical music and of our orchestra, which, together with the symphony orchestra of the national radio maintains high criteria in symphonic music.”

English version: Kostadin Atanasov

The audio file contains the following pieces:

1. Marguerite scene, part of Faust Opera by Charles Gounod, to the rendition of Vera Girginova and Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra

2. The Island by Martin Panteleev