site.bta120 Years since the Birth of Composer and Pianist Dimitar Nenov: Largely Forgotten, Strikingly Modern

December 19 (Lyubomir Gigov of BTA) - Dimitar Nenov, a
largely forgotten yet strikingly modern Bulgarian composer and
pianist, was born 120 years ago on Sunday - on December 19,
1901, in Razgrad (Northeastern Bulgaria).

He showed interest in music since early childhood, starting
piano lessons with his mother at age 6. His parents, though, had
 other plans for him. In 1920 Dimitar left for Dresden and
enrolled in the Higher Technical School, which he graduated as
an architect in 1927. He was also interested in philosophy,
literature, art history, mathematics and physics and also tried
his hand at translation, but music was his paramount pursuit. In
 Dresden, he studied piano privately under Karl Fehling and
theory and composition at the conservatoire under Theodor Blumer
 and Paul Bitner. Paying his keep was a struggle: at times he
had to play for 10 hours a day, accompanying silent films with
an orchestra. It was in Dresden that he started his concert
career and wrote his first important works.

Back in Bulgaria, he was employed as an architect (1927-1932)
and designed several important buildings, including the Sofia
Central Railway Station (as part of a team).

In the early 1930s, he focused entirely on music. Nenov finally
earned a professional diploma in piano and composition in
Bologna, Italy, in 1933, after specializing with Egon Petri. He
was a successful concert pianist at home and abroad, performing
with artistic refinement and emotional flair.

He was the first music director of Radio Sofia (1935-1937) and
started the station's  collection of sound recordings. Thanks to
 him, the radio began playing professional Bulgarian music. He
commissioned composers to write pieces especially for the radio
and himself contributed works for that purpose.

Nenov taught piano at Sofia's State Music Academy (1933-1935 and
 1937-1943) and was a professor there. His students say he
instilled in them a "cult of sound and form", treating music as
a visual art, a philosophy and a  history.

Back since his stay in Germany, his health had been shattered by
 privations and backbreaking work. Depression overwhelmed him
after the communist takeover in September 1944, and he took two
courses of treatment in Germany. He was rumoured to be a
homosexual (which is not corroborated) and a morphine addict (he
 was actually on painkillers). On August 31, 1953 in Sofia, he
succumbed to kidney failure before he turned 52.

"Those who envied him deviously exploited his weaknesses to
crush him," said Polina Antonova of the Bulgarian Academy of
Sciences' Institute of Art Studies, a researcher of Nenov's
lifework.

Nenov is an outstanding exponent of Bulgarian musical modernism.
 With an exquisite and colourful expressiveness - unmistakably
his own, he transformed folk song backgrounds into a
contemporary musical poetics and explored unconventional tone
structures. He wrote mainly symphonies and piano pieces. His
most frequently performed works are a Toccata and a set of five
Piano Miniatures (his most popular piece).

"Nenov looked 100 years ahead," Antonova says. "He paved the way
 of contemporary European music to Bulgaria." LG/LG
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