site.btaMaestro Kamdzhalov: Our Christmas Concert Is Tribute to Awakeners Who Shaped Culture and Music of 20th Century

The Christmas concert on December 19 will feature the Bulgarian avant-garde of the 20th century, only by composers we celebrate this year, conductor Yordan Kamdzhalov told BTA on the occasion of the eighth edition of the concert "Christmas" in Hall 3 of the National Palace of Culture (NDK).

By tradition, the concert will feature the oratorio "Christmas" by composer and architect Dimitar Nenov (1901-1953). It is on his birthday that the event is held every year. "This is the only Christmas oratorio by a Bulgarian composer and the only Christmas oratorio in the musical culture of the planet written by a professional architect," Kamdzhalov said.

Dimitar Nenov studied architecture in Germany, then studied in Poland and Italy, where he graduated as a musician. He was the first music curator of Radio Sofia (1935-1937) and the founder of the radio's phonotheque. In the first half of the 1930s he ran a private conservatory in Sofia. He taught piano and was a professor at the State Academy of Music in Sofia. "He created very avant-garde architecture for his time. Many of his projects were boycotted and banned, both in Tsarist times and in Communist times," said Yordan Kamdzhalov.

In his words, during the years of socialism there was an order for the complete destruction of Dimitar Nenov's records. "Overnight, the archive of the Bulgarian National Radio, of Dimitar Nenov, where he publicly, in each of his broadcasts, performed live music, was erased. He was an amazing virtuoso. The Western press - in France, in Germany, as early as the beginning of the 20th century, declared him one of the greatest living pianists. We are talking about a phenomenon in the full sense of the word," the conductor explained.