Concerto for Violin and Orchestra

The violin concerto, which Sofia premiere will take place tonight (the world premiere was in Ruse, on October 3^rd , 2021 - with the Festival Orchestra of the "March Music Days", soloist - Svetlin Roussev, conductor - the author himself ) is actually the second in the oeuvre of the great Bulgarian composer and conductor Emil Tabakov. The first one dates back to 1995 and is a concerto for violin, vibraphone, marimba, bells and mixed choir, created on the idea of the violinist Mincho Minchev, who had a dream to hear the sound of his violin in a choral setting. But the composer himself considers this to be the work in the classical sense of the genre: The concerto I wrote 25 years ago is for violin, but the other percussionists are also soloists. I remember once, when they played the previous concert in Varna, Alexander Raichev said to me "Emil, you should know, this is not a violin concerto, it's a Symphonie-Concertante". And maybe he was right. Even I had renamed it that way, but then I brought back the original title. And so, I wanted to write a classical concerto for solo violin and orchestra. This concerto is like that. At the end of the musical text of the score, it is indicated that the work was completed on September 18^th , 2019. The idea for the concert was born by Tabakov as a result of his long work with the Festival Orchestra, composed of students from different classes of the Ruse Music School on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the March Music Days Festival. The idea to play together in the orchestra appealed so much to all the musicians who were coming from all over the world, that its existence continued and can now be said to be traditional. Emil Tabakov is the conductor who works with them and for him their music-making together becomes a special, inspiring experience: It has been ten years since I worked with the festival orchestra of "March Music Days" and always with Svetlin Roussev as a soloist. Then the idea came to me to write something special for this orchestra and for Svetlin. I know the incredible energy of the ensemble, I know the way they all approach the pieces, the special atmosphere that is created. And that's why it wasn't difficult for me at all to imagine this orchestra with Svetlin Roussev and to write this piece. It was thought and created for them. The character of the concerto is in keeping with the qualities of the orchestra. The soloist, of course, is extremely important - I had this particular soloist in mind in this case. But the atmosphere in the orchestra is extraordinary. It is not like other professional orchestras. I've been thinking all along about how these people - classmates, if I may call them that, from different generations - make music together. Certainly the concerto is very virtuosic for the violin, but as in all my instrumental concertos, the solo part is not the only featured part. I have always wanted to get equal playing between the soloist and the orchestra. In all my concertos it is like that. For me the orchestra is a very important instrument. So even though the concerto is for a particular instrument, the orchestra is always an equal partner, not just accompanying the soloist. The violin, on the other hand, has enormous possibilities and is always a challenge for the composer. Especially when you think of it and hear it in the sonic environment of such an orchestra. The work consists of four movements - this is Tabakov's first instrumental concerto in four movements. All the rest are in three movements. One knows the composer's drive, ambition and purposeful work in developing, to exhaustion, the thematic material (usually of several keys) that underpins the dramatic form. It was logical, therefore, to assume that there was a particular reason to add an extra movement in the construction of the concerto, the latter being related to the qualities of the main themes composed. But here is what Emil Tabakov said: This is actually my first instrumental concerto, which is in four movements. There is no special reason for that. I was just looking for a balance between the faster, more energetic and the slower parts. I suppose it's due to that. There's no particular intention in that direction. It is true that each movement begins with a solo instrument. I can't remember if that was intentional or if it just occurred to me at the time to put the musical idea that way. I don't think there's any particular reason for it, but maybe it's still the way the main role of the solo instrument is stated. The concerto was completed in 2019 and I can't remember to what extend it was done on purpose.. As the person writes and is inside the work, they are naturally struck by various impulses, some of which they use in the score. Moderate, two fast and one slow movement form the architectonics of the composition. The concerto begins in tempo Moderato with only the soloist playing a theme specific in its intervallic structure, the minor second (it defines the famous Phrygian slant in the concerto's development), combined with "broad" tritones and septimes. The theme radiates, suggesting the typical anxiety of Tabakov's music. However much he seeks to leave this emotional realm, it is evident that it vibrates dominantly within him. Faithful to the idea of a classical structure of composition, "imbued" by personal discoveries in orchestral writing, in the combinatorics between the individual timbre-groups - together or in solo function, as a separate timbre, separate color and soloist, Tabakov is extremely inventive in regard to the orchestra in symphonic building. He combines delicate polyphonism with a mobile, surprising vertical, and continues to explore the possibilities of contraction and expansion of the orchestra, with different kinds of variations on the main theme in different time segments. This creates a particular sonic amalgam that breathes naturally yet surprisingly, and although orchestra and soloist engage in an equal dialogue, the composer's masterful orchestration is tolerant of the violin's evocative, sharing voice. In the second movement, the soloist begins with a four-bar theme in which the two-by-two bars have a polar rhythmic structure. And it is precisely this quality of its that is the premise for its rapid transformation - polyrhythmically, polyphonically, timbrally, and in places polymetrically. The character of the movement suggests scherzo-ness, in the sense of the Scherzo heard in twentieth-century symphonic music. But the composer is of a different opinion: Although it's fast and energetic in nature I wouldn't want the second part to be thought of as scherzo. I run away from such titles. It's not that fast either, it's more dynamic in mood, not so much in tempo. As in his other creations, in the slow, third movement Tabakov abandons the insistent movement in time to impose a drawn-out spatiality. Here, at the beginning, the solo instrument whispers (piano, with sourdine) an interesting motif in sextets, again with material from the main theme of the first movement. The sound 'floats' high, mostly in string divisi, harp passages and counterpointing celesta - transparent, haunting. The space is coloured by careful solos on clarinet or oboe. Briefly the whole orchestra joins in for a dynamic climax, 'punctuated' by an insistent quiet rejoinder from the solo violin, to which is added a gradual strings in divisi - the texture returning to its initial form - solo violin and held pedal in strings. In the final 10 bars, one hears the light rumble of the tremolo on the big drum and tam-tam (whose timbre the composer often used in his chosen orchestral line-up for his works). The final movement is very fast, captivating the attention with spectacular pulses of speed that radiate evocative emotional energy. And extraordinary solo violin mobility, requiring extraordinary reflex and virtuosity from the soloist. Indeed, the violin part encompasses a very wide range of technical and expressive means, implying not only perfect instrumentalism. It requires extraordinary precision in the execution of the stroke, combined with flexibility and timbral instinct for all the episodes in which the solo part 'works' with small groups - harp and celesta, percussion in various configurations, and with the whole orchestra when replicating it - as in the fourth movement. There is no traditional solo cadenza; rather, it exists latently in those episodes in which the solo instrument seems to improvise with the timbral or rhythmic support of solo woodwinds, selected percussion, or individual strings. Integrative and evocative, masterfully constructed and polished, this work, I am convinced, instantly captivates the orchestra, the soloist and everyone in the room. Tabakov's symphonic style reigns here too with all its uncompromisingness, with the specific psychologicalism of suggestion, with the continuous eventfulness in the development of his narrative, born of the composer's intuition and thought. And shared with reciprocity by his audience.