Svetoslav Obretenov

Svetoslav Obretenov (1909–1955) graduated from the State Academy of Music in 1934. During his one-year training as a conductor he conducted the choir at the Yavorov Cultural Club in Sofia, the Trade Union Choir and the Kaval Choir in Sofia. In 1935 he worked as a composer and pianist at the theatre in Ruse. From 1937 to 1941 he worked as a teacher in Biala Slatina, Yambol and Plovdiv. In the period 1942-44 he composed for the Drama Theatre in Varna and conducted the town’s choir Morski zvutzi (Sea Sounds). In 1933 he began collaborating with the anti-fascist theatres Popular Stage, T-35 and the Realistic Theatre and composed songs to theatre performances inspired by workers’ topics. In 1934, together with the poet Nikolay Hrelkov, he compiled the first revolutionary song collection entitled 20 Workers’ Songs. After 1944 he continued his active creative work and social involvement. He conducted choirs in Biala Slatina, Yambol, Plovdiv and Varna. He had a particularly intense work with the State Radio Choir which, after his tragic death, was renamed after him Svetoslav Obretenov Bulgarian Choral Capella (the present-day Svetoslav Obretenov State Philharmonic Choir). Under his leadership, the choir grew up as a prominent performing ensemble and set up a new dimension in the professional Bulgarian choral art. Its repertoire included hundreds of titles, most of them masterpieces of the Bulgarian, Soviet and Russian music. He gave a number of public concerts and made lots of studio recordings released on LP. He visited former Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, the world festivals of democratic youth in Prague, Budapest, Berlin and Bucharest, where he won prizes. In 1949 he conducted the Kaval Choir. During the academic year 1952-53 he specialised in Moscow with Y. Shaporin. He authored works in a variety of genres; his cantatas and oratorios are considered to be particularly valuable. These works reveal his social and political involvement. He wrote 25 songs for mixed and 12 for children choir; 99 social songs (some of them were published in the collection 20 Workers’ Songs); 14 solo songs; 32 solo children’s songs, theatre music, etc. Among his instrumental pieces his Six Preludes for piano and his Children’s Album, which reveal the rich melodic invention of the author won huge popularity and are now ranged among the best piano music works by Bulgarian composers.