site.btaRenowned Bulgarian Composer Vassil Kazandjiev Turns 90

On September 10, 2024 renowned Bulgarian composer Vassil Kazandjiev turns 90. "I believe that creativity is a mirror of personality. In that sense, my music probably fully expresses who I am - not only as an artist, but also as a person. I think that an author's creativity can at least mask his shortcomings or exaggerate his qualities. In a word, in creativity there is no hidden-concealed, there everything shines out," said Kazandjiev, whose work is seen as representative of classical Bulgarian music of the 20th and 21st century.  

He was born on September 10, 1934 in the northern village of Marten, Ruse Region, into a family of intellectuals with interests in music.

"My parents were crucial to this formation in the sense that they were the first to think of turning me on to music. And actually it happened very accidentally. I started out on guitar at a very young age, maybe seven, and that's how they knew I had this aptitude. Soon they bought me a piano and decided that I should become a musician," says Vasil Kazandjiev.

So, he started playing the piano at the age of 10 and at 12 he made his first attempts at composing. From 1948 to 1952, he studied composition with Prof. Konstantin Iliev in Ruse. After graduating from the male high school there in 1952, he was admitted to the Bulgarian State Conservatory in Sofia, where he studied composition under Prof. Pantcho Wladigeroff and conducting under Prof. Vladi Simeonov.

WLADIGEROFF, PIPKOV, HADJIEV

Asked about the influences in his work, Vasil Kazandjiev replied, "I can say that I have been influenced by Wladigeroff. Well, as a child - from Parashkev Hadjiev as well. I had some very vaguely imitative moments. But then from Wladigeroff, and again more in terms of the means of expression, orchestration, the way of constructing the thought, the musical idea, its development, to somehow go spontaneously, smoothly... I think that's the most important thing he taught me. That the music should flow naturally, without stumbling, without unnecessary deliberation, and that everything should be in its place. Without disturbing its internal organization and consistency".

He also said of his professor, "Prof. Wladigeroff was a German student, a perfectionist, all his work is like that. We were students together with [world-famous jazz musician] Milcho Leviev then, and now when we see each other we only talk about the professor. All his students idolize him. Apart from being demanding, he was a good man and had a very strong sense of humour. He made our studies meaningful. He was a great musician, but he stumbled when he had to explain theoretically how things worked and why. So he would sit at the piano, improvize and just demonstrate. That's how we understood music," Kazandjiev said.

He added about Lyubomir Pipkov: "I have always liked him very much as an author and I consider him to this day to be the most original composers, the most crude, the most Bulgarian... A phenomenon, one of a kind, and that is why he has no followers... But personally, Pipkov has always amazed me with this laconicism, this simplicity, especially in his original ideas. It's a great quality, and I think he has influenced me quite a lot in that way." 

SOFIA OPERA, SOFIA SOLOISTS, MUSIC ACADEMY, ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

After graduating from the Music Conservatory in 1957, Kazandjiev was appointed conductor at the Sofia Opera (1957-1964). From 1962 to 1978 he founded and directed the Sofia Chamber Orchestra (now the Sofia Soloists Chamber Ensemble). Under his leadership the ensemble established itself as one of the leading orchestras of Bulgaria and had numerous tours in Bulgaria and abroad, participated in all national festivals, and established itself on the international stage. From 1979 to 1993 he was the chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio.

Throughout his career he has made a great contribution to the promotion of contemporary music in Bulgaria and the performance of Bulgarian works abroad. In 1960 he started teaching score reading and in 1984 orchestral conducting. In 1985 he became professor of opera and symphonic Conducting at the Bulgarian State Conservatory in Sofia. He also taught orchestral conducting in South Korea (1996 - 2002).

In 2005 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 he became an academician. 

Between 1954 and 2007, Vasil Kazandjiev was a member of the Union of Bulgarian Composers and in 1962 he joined the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers.

WORK

His repertoire includes works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Béla Bartók, Benjamin Britten, Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz and Ludwig van Beethoven. Johannes Brahms and others, as well as Bulgarian composers, including Lyubomir Pipkov, Veselin Stoyanov, Konstantin Iliev, Pantcho Wladigeroff, Lazar Nikolov, Alexander Raichev and others.

He gained popularity as a composer in the early 1950s. He composed 124 opuses - works in various genres: chamber music, symphonic music, theatre and film music. Some of his works include Symphonietta for large orchestra (1952), Small Suites for oboe, bassoon and clarinet (1953), Divertimento for small orchestra (1957), and the overture September 1923 (1958), Symphony of Hymns (1959), Concerto for Orchestra, Piano and Saxophone (1960), Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1962), First String Quartet Perspectives (1964), Second Symphony of Timbres (1968), The Living Icons - Praise of the Sofia Crypt (1970), Pictures from Bulgaria (1971), Festive Music - Psalms and Rituals for String Orchestra (1972), Episodes for Clarinet, Harp and Percussion (1974), Apocalypse Wind Quartet (1976), Illuminations (1977), Piano Quartet (1979), Dialogue for Flute and Harp (1980), Third Symphony (1982), Nirvana Symphony for Chorus and Orchestra (2000). The chamber ballet Hope for Ballet premiered in 2022. 

RECOGNITION

In 1957, Kazandjiev won the prize for modern composition at the Sixth International Youth Festival of Modern Composition in Moscow, with Dmitry Shostakovich presiding over the jury. In 1971 he was awarded the Dimitrov Prize. In 1972 he was awarded the title of Merited Artist. In 1979 he won the third prize for large musical forms of the Ministry of National Defence. In 1980 he was awarded the title of People's Artist. In 1984 he was awarded the Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, First Class. In 1990 he received the Sofia Award for a major musical work. In 2006 he received the Order of St. St. Cyril and Methodius (necklace). In 2009 he was awarded the Golden Feather. He was awarded the Golden Century star of the Ministry of Culture (2014), the Paisii of Chilandar State Award (2015), the Crystal Lyre award of the Union of Bulgarian Music and Dance Artists (UBMDT) and Classic FM Radio (2016), and the Special Prize of Sofia Municipality for outstanding achievements and contribution to national culture (2017).