Wladigeroff’s emblematic Vardar Rhapsody turns one century

published on 11/2/22 3:42 PM

Photo: library

This year marks the 100^th anniversary of the creation of the Vardar Rhapsody - one of the most popular Bulgarian classical music works, known in various transcriptions. Music written on a grand scale, glamorous, festive, colourful - what Pancho Wladigeroff’s musical legacy is all about. And it is certainly the most famous work of the celebrated Bulgarian composer, pianist and conductor.

A hundred years ago, the then 23-year-old Wladigeroff was living in Berlin. Having started his musical education in Bulgaria, in 1914, together with his twin brother - violinist Lyuben Wladigeroff, they went to the German capital, where they studied with famous teachers. The composer twice won the prestigious Mendelssohn Prize of the University of Berlin – first in 1918 - for his First Piano Concerto, opus 6, and in 1920 - for "Three Impressions".

No less remarkable is the fact that the great conductor Herbert von Karajan even as a student performed works by Pancho Wladigeroff, and in 1926 he graduated with his Piano Concerto No. 1.

As is known, the composer worked for the Deutsches Theater (from 1920 to 1932), at the invitation of Max Reinhardt himself. In this period (in 1922) the composer signed a contract with the famous Viennese publishing house Universal Edition.

In the same year, he wrote the Rhapsody "Vardar", which in its first version was for violin and piano. The story of creation is told by Wladigeroff himself in an interview with BNR.

According to his words, in 1921, there were Bulgarians in a pub in Berlin, among them the artist Konstantin Shtarkelov and Pancho Wladigeroff. In the middle of the evening, Shtarkelov starting singing a song, and Pancho Wladigeroff took out a notebook with staff paper and wrote down the melody. Not long after, he invited his friends to his home, where Pancho and Lyuben Wladigeroff premiered the new work, called Bulgarian Rhapsody for Violin and Piano Op. 16, in 1922.

Later they learned that the theme on which the composer built the final parts of the work was actually Dobri Hristov's patriotic song "Edinichuk chui se vik", included in the collection "Balkan songs". In the following year, 1923, the work was published by Universal Edition under the name Bulgarian Rhapsody "Vardar". Later (1928) Wladigeroff orchestrated it for a large symphony orchestra, made several more transcriptions, and in 1971 Lyuben Wladigeroff reworked "Vardar" for two solo violins. This, in short, is the story of this work, which is being truly performed all over the world and became emblematic not only for its author, but also for Bulgarian musical culture.

Now we will hear it performed by the SO of the BNR, the conductor is the son of the composer - Alexander Wladigeroff.