Piano
Recital by
Gergana
Nestorova
(Bulgaria)
Double PORTRAIT:
(France)
&
(France)
Featuring
Alexandra
Radoulova
(Bulgaria/Austria)
Yoana
Georgieva
(Bulgaria)
Kristian
Todorov
(Bulgaria)
Part I:
Portrait of IVANE BÉATRICE
BELLOCQ
Iceland (2011) *
Lava
Ice
Fault
Movement (1982) *
Carnaval in the Mist (2017) *
{performed
by Yoana Georgieva}
* * *
PART II:
Portrait of FRANÇOISE CHOVEAUX
Excerpts
from 11 Préludes-Tableaux (Op. 217, 2015–17) *
[after
paintings by Eugène Leroy]
{performed
by Kristiyan Todorov}
I. Autoportrait
IV. Grande
Pâture
Winter
Sonata (Op.119, 2003) *
[dedicated
to Emile Naoumoff]
I. Andante
II. Vivace
III. Adagio misterioso – Allegro – Adagio
IV. Vif et léger
V. Grave e sonore
Bulgarian Impressions for two pianos (Op.
263, 2019) **
[dedicated
to Borislava Taneva]
{performed
by Gergana Nestorova & Alexandra Radoulova}
Rila
Monastery and the Seven Rila Lakes
Dance over
Fire
Bulgarian
Soul
__________
* Bulgarian premiere
** World premiere
The Performers
Gergana Nestorova (b. 1989) was born in
Nessebar (Bulgaria). She graduated from the “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” National School of Music and Stage
Arts (Burgas) in 2008, where she studied piano with Julia
Nenova. From 2008 to 2013, she was a student at the “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov”
National Academy of Music (Sofia) under Prof. Marina Kapatsinskaya. In 2013,
she graduated with a master's degree, and in 2019 she successfully defended her
doctoral dissertation on the solo piano music of Julia Tsenova. In September
2019 after successfully passing an audition, she was appointed as a teacher of piano
at the “Lyubomir Pipkov” National Music School in Sofia.
In
2010, she participated in the master class of Prof. Dmitri Bashkirov as a part
of The International Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria. She has won awards
from international competitions in Bulgaria, Romania, France and Italy.
Gergana
Nestorova has been in concert both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. She
has participated in the Varna Summer International Music Festival
(2019), The Music of Europe International Festival (organised by the
Sofia Philharmonic, 2019), Artis
International Classical Music Festival, New
Bulgarian Music (2018), ppIANISSIMO
International Festival of Contemporary Piano Music (2011, 2015 and 2016), Katya
Popova Laureate Days (2016), European Music Festival (2013) and the Concert for
the 90th Anniversary of National Academy of Music – Sofia (2011). She has also
performed as a soloist with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonietta – Vidin, Sinfonietta – Shumen, Burgas
Philharmonic Orchestra, Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra and the Academic Orchestra
of the National Academy of Music.
In
2018, she had a particularly successful tour in Japan – presenting a rich
recital programme consisting entirely of works by Chopin in a number of cities.
During her Japanese tour, she also performed as a soloist with the Tokyo-based
Mozart Virtuoso Orchestra.
She
has recorded for the Bulgarian National Radio and Bulgarian National
Television.
(© Zlatin Georgiev)
* * *
Alexandra Radoulova
(b. 1989) has graduated from the “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” National Academy of
Music in Sofia in the piano class of Prof. Stella Dimitrova-Maystorova. Her
interest in new music started already in her youth and she continued working
intensively in this direction during her university studies in Sofia. After her
graduation, she moved to Vienna, where she studied free improvisation and
interpretation with Manon-Liu Winter.
In
2014, she won the award for best interpretation of a contemporary music piece
at the International Summer Academy organised by the University of Music and
Performing Arts in Vienna. That same year, she started studying Performance
Practice in Contemporary Music – a master’s degree programme at the University
of Music and Preforming Arts in Graz, which she graduated from in 2018. In 2017, she became an alumnus of the Lucerne Festival Academy, founded by Pierre Boulez.
She
has specialised in the areas of chamber music and ensemble practice. She has
worked with composers like Tristan Murail, Beat Furrer, Friedrich Cerha, Ian Robin, Francesco Filidei, Bernhard Gander,
Klaus Lang, Georg Friedrich Haas, Heinz Holliger,
Simone Movio, Geard Kühr and others. She has occasionally played with
ensemble Klangforum Wien and from
2016 to 2019 she worked as a pianist in their study programme. She has also
worked as an organisation assistant for the ensemble. In Graz, she continued
her free improvisation studies together with Elisabeth Harnik and Annette
Giesriegel. Since 2016, she has been a member of STIO – the Styrian Improvisers
Orchestra.
She
is also interested in promoting new music and free improvisation. She has
worked as an assistant in the workshops Interface
(2014, 2015 and 2016), in the andrä
musik: Kunstvermittlung (2016) – a project of Klangforum Wien for children and adolescents from different ethnic
origins, as well for the workshops of the festival Collective Thoughts (2015). In 2016, together with her colleagues,
she realised a project of her own – Klang_Stadl
2016 – a music workshop for amateur musicians that won state sponsoring for
further editions. She has participated in festivals such as Impuls, ECLAT, Interspeech, etc.
* * *
Yoana
Georgieva (b. 1999) has graduated from the “Prof. Assen
Zlatarov” Language School in Veliko Tarnovo, studying German and English. In her
high school years, she studied piano at various music schools. Subsequently,
she became a private student of Prof. Lilia Naumova. In 2018, she entered the
“Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” National Academy of Music majoring in choral
conducting under Prof. Teodora Pavlovich. There she also studies in the piano
class of Ch. Asst. Prof. Margarita Ilieva, PhD. She has participated in the piano
master classes of professors Tomislav Nedelkovich-Bainov, Tamara Poddubnaya,
Viktor Chuchkov, Rostislav Yovchev and others.
She
has won numerous competitions, including the Heirs of Orpheus
International Music Competition (Albena, 2015 and 2016), the Bursa Nilüfer
International Piano Competition and Music Festival (Turkey, 2016), the Musical
Fireworks in Baden-Württemberg (Germany, 2017) and the Hope, Talents,
Masters International Youth Music Competition (Dobrich, 2008).
(© Maria Radeva)
* * *
Kristian Todorov
(b. 2001) is studying at the “Paisiy Hilendarski” High School of Mathematics
and at the SoftUni Software Academy in Sofia. He has studied piano at
the “Elin Pelin” Community Centre with Binka Georgieva. Professors Milena
Mollova, Lyudmil Angelov and Borislava Taneva have also contributed to his
musical development. He has participated in a number of national and
international competitions, including the “Pancho Vladigerov” International
Piano and Violin Competition (Shumen) and the Windsor International Piano
Competition (London).
* * *
The Composers
Ivane Béatrice Bellocq (b. 1958) is French
composer and flutist. She studied with Roger Bourdin and Michel Debost (flute),
Max Deutsch (analysis) and Olivier Greif (composition). She has won several
international composition competitions and numerous prizes as a flutist.
Previously a teacher at the École normale de musique de Paris, then director of
Saint-Cloud’s School of Music, she now devotes herself to flute playing and
composition.
Her oeuvre includes
vocal works in English, French and German after texts by such poets as Alfred
Tennyson, Charlotte Brontë, René Char and Emily Dickinson, among them Meduana and numerous pieces
with narrator; as well as chamber and orchestral works, among them Hallucination for chamber
orchestra, Symphonie
déconcertante for three soloists, orchestra and jazz band, Paradise is of the Option
for voice and cello, Der gelbe
Klang for trumpet, two pianos and two percussions, Estrans for sextet
(commissioned by Radio France), Le
tombeau d’Olivier Greif for piano quartet (commissioned by Théâtre
du Châtelet, Paris), a trilogy of concertos (for electric guitar, for ondes
Martenot and for concrete mixer, electric guitar and ondes Martenot), Lleennttoo for orchestra, Paysage avec ruisseau for
flute and string orchestra.
Among her numerous CDs,
all published by DUX, are Obsession (2010), East Wind (2014) and Melodramas
(2018).
In 2011, a conservatory
after her name – the Bellocq Music School – was opened in Mayenne (France).
As a flutist, she
performs regularly all over Europe and in the USA.
* * *
Françoise Choveaux (b.1953) takes up a
musical tradition anchored in the 19th century – she is a composer but also a
pianist. She studied at the Academy of Lille, the École normale de musique de
Paris, the Institute Peabody of Baltimore and the Juilliard School of Music in
New York.
As of today, she has
already written more than 170 works for most instruments and formations, from single
instrument to symphony orchestras. Her works are played in Europe, Asia and
America. Numerous live and studio recordings have been made of her music.
Each of her works is
inspired either by journeys and emotions or connected directly with a literary
or visual work. In her musical route chamber music has always played an
important role, with works written for prominent soloists as well as for
established ensembles. Her quartets, for example, were created for and
interpreted by such quartets as the Vilnius String Quartet, the Rimsky-Korsakov
String Quartet, the Debussy String Quartet, the Ravel String Quartet, the Danel
Quartet and the Stanislas String Quartet.
In 2002, she began an
important cycle dedicated to orchestras. First of all, by pursuing her series
of three symphonies for strings, today known and interpreted by several
orchestras, including the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Marseille
Philharmonic Orchestra and Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra. Then, by writing
a series of concerti.
As a pianist, Françoise
Choveaux performs at prestigious festivals in Europe, Asia, the United States
and Brazil. She has recorded the complete piano work of Darius Milhaud at the
suggestion of Madeleine Milhaud, the composer’s wife.
* * *
The Works
In Iceland extreme heat and extreme cold can be
found at the same place. With no intermediary. In this respect, it is a black
and white country – as is the keyboard of a piano, visually speaking. The piece
Iceland
is quite similar in its contrasts. Its first movement – Lava – explores the limits of perception we can have in the extreme
bass register of the piano, whereas the second movement – Ice – does it the same in the extreme treble. It is surprising to
notice how much the ear improves as soon as we listen to the same piece a
second time. We begin to discern melismas whereas the first time we were only discerning
a sonorous lava (in the extreme bass), and percussion or screeching (in the
extreme treble). The third movement – Fault
– refers to the fault right in the middle of this country – the mother of the
faults of our planet, which cuts it entirely in two, just as it cuts the bottom
of the Atlantic Ocean in two. The East and the West parts move inexorably away
from each other – thus shall move the hands of the artist.
The
piece Movement is one of the pieces that I composed under the
direction of my teacher of composition, Olivier Greif. I have, of course,
evolved a lot since then, but this piece is still representative, I believe, of
some of my constants: energy, incantation, asymmetrical rhythms...
The
powerful and colourful Carnаval (Op.
9) by Robert Schumann is both virtuosic and profound. However, it contains
elements of the composer’s tragic end. His inclination to a dual or split
personality is very much present in this work. I think it is the announcement
of this kind of mist which will invade him more and more. Two centuries later,
the beginning of my own piece – Carnaval in the Mist – is
very close to that of Schumann’s, but the “mist of time” introduces
transformations, which increase with the progressive darkness or filter of his
brain. Logically, little by little the music self-destructs... all can only be
submerged, unachieved...
Ivane Béatrice Bellocq
The
Winter Sonata is the first work of a
piano sonatas cycle I started to write after the seasons. Similar to most of my
pieces, this is telluric music which is inspired by nature, poems or paintings.
This sonata was written for and world premiered by Émile Naoumoff – famous
French pianist and composer of Bulgarian origin and last student of Nadia
Boulanger.
I
wrote the cycle of 11 Préludes-Tableaux
while I was composer-in-residence in Tourcoing (France) from 2015 to 2017. As
quite often, I collaborated with museums. So, during my residence there I wrote
these pieces inspired by the works of Eugène Leroy exhibited at the MUba Eugène
Leroy Contemporary Art Museum. Some of them, as well as the two included in the
programme, are orchestral in several aspects.
Bulgarian
Impressions for two pianos is a piece
dedicated to Borislava Tavena, who had already performed the premiere
of 24 piano preludes of mine in Luxembourg in 2019. I made some research into
the cultural heritage of Bulgaria and choose three themes as my inspiration.
They were just my feelings, my impressions. The first movement – Rila Monastery and the Seven Rila Lakes
– begins with an introduction of a slight oriental colour, describing the
landscape of the seven lakes. In the middle section, a chorale-like prayer
unfolds slowly, emphasising always the same theme as an imploration, and
moves on before slowing down and ending in the style of the
beginning, as a spiritual dream. The second movement – Dance over Fire – is a fast dance piece full of energy from
beginning to end, as if a spirit has taken over the soul and the
dancer is losing control. The third movement – Bulgarian Soul – expressed my feelings about the Bulgarian heart.
Françoise
Choveaux
(© Zlatin Georgiev)