site.btaBTA's LIK Magazine Launches Issue Devoted to Pantcho Wladigeroff at National Academy of Music

The March issue of BTA's LIK magazine, devoted to the 125th birth anniversary of Bulgarian composer and musician Pantcho Wladigeroff (1899-1978) was launched Thursday at the National Academy of Music named after him. The issue is entitled "A European in Bulgarian Music".

Taking part in the news conference were BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, the National Academy of Music Rector, Prof. Sava Dimitrov, Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, head of BTA's Directorate for Knowledge and Culture LIK, LIK Managing Editor Yanitsa Hristova, the Academy's Prof. Snezhina Vrangova and Prof. Natasha Yapova, and Nadya Sotirova, Director of the Pantcho Wladigeroff House Museum.

Sava Dimitrov called Pantcho Wladigeroff "a doyen in music". The motto of this issue of LIK could be expanded to refer to a Bulgarian important for Europe, who blazed a trail from West to East rather than from Bulgaria to Europe. Just recently, the National Academy of Music has received a donation of Wladigeroff's second instrument, which was in Germany for many years.

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said this issue of LIK was being launched at the best of all places - the National Academy of Music named after the composer. "That is why I want to talk as much about Pantcho Wladigeroff as about the Academy. It not only preserves the memory of the great Bulgarian musician, but multiplies this memory through the study of his works and their performance by the students," he said.

Valchev quoted an interview with Wladigeroff: when asked if he was happy, the composer said it was his students that made him happy as they continued his lifework.

"There is yet another important similarity between Wladigeroff and the Academy of Music: their lasting presence. This issue of the magazine tells the story of a man who is lasting presence personified," Valchev said.

"There is a whole era between his first piano concerto and his last (the fifth). Entire systems changed, two World Wars took place. The first concerto was composed in 1918, and the fifth in 1963. Significantly, this lasting presence was not marked by just being; it is a model, as indicated by the title, of a European presence, of belonging; and it is something else that we particularly need - an inspiration in our work," said Valchev.

Georgi Lozanov said that in its third period, the LIK magazine focuses primarily on memory. It aims to create a dialogue between the generations, and to let young people know it [memory] is part of their lives. "[Young people] to have the feeling that Pancho Wladigeroff is their fellow citizen. No matter that he is no longer living, he is their fellow citizen," Lozanov noted.

He said: "Looking back, we can learn many things, ones that are enjoyable to learn. This is not some traumatic memory. It has to do with a great joy that art has been created, and in difficult times at that. One important part is the presentation of personalities who are themselves events. The kind of people who, in addition to their creativity, created models of behaviour - who influenced the thinking of the nation. In this sense, Pantcho Wladigeroff belongs in this group. Because in music he is probably the greatest figure who is an event in himself.”

"Hermeneutics is about how we interpret things over time. There are two tenses - a 'before' and a 'now.' But that 'before' is frozen. And this 'now' is moving. And it is enough to move forward for new visions and new senses of culture to emerge, and then Pantcho will reappear, again, in a different guise. Because art, the artist, remains in history and achieves immortality," Lozanov added.

Yanitsa Hristova said the oldest news item she found in the archives about Wladigeroff dated from 1927. It was about his concert in Paris. "Besides his immense talent and long and fruitful life, we tried to capture a purely human side of Pantcho Wladigeroff," she said.

Prof. Vrangova talked about the challenge of writing about the musician.

Prof. Yapova spoke about the composer's place in Bulgarian culture, saying that he could well be the best known composer to the general public.

At the end of the news conference, Prof. Sava Dimitrov presented to Kiril Valchev a commemorative coin for Wladigeroff's 125th anniversary minted by the Bulgarian National Bank.