Only at the age of 60 did Veselin Stoyanov write his Symphony No. 1 in B minor (he composed the Second “Veliki Preslav” in the last year of his life). The year was 1962, a difficult time of ideological dictatorship. The symphony was born in the surroundings of various works by younger composers: the Diaphonic Studies by Krassimir  Kyurkchiyski,, the Overture-Poem by Jules Levi, the Symphony One Boy Counts the Stars by Ivan Marinov, the Symphonic Episodes by Dimitar Hristov. Lazar Nikolov completed his Second Symphony, Konstantin Iliev – the opera “The Boyana Master”. Works that bring a sense of the future, of perspective. And Veselin Stoyanov remained true to himself – honest, harmonious, in the lexicon of his characteristic symphonic style.

The premiere of the Symphony No. 1 – on 1 November 1962 with the Sofia Philharmonic conducted by Konstantin Iliev – was a concert in honour of the VIII Congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party. The author did not tie his work to this political event. The press, of course, noted the positive fact that one of the classics of Bulgarian music had completed his first symphony, and the collective “under the skilful and temperamental leadership of K. Iliev has placed itself entirely at the service of the author for the most successful possible stage birth of this major Bulgarian work”. Some see in the “optimistic and vibrant world-view the joyful sentiments of the rise of socialist musical education and culture”. The power of purely instrumental music is that it gives scope to the imagination – for good and for bad.

Veselin Stoyanov builds the symphony into a large and tight single-movement form that skillfully combines poem-like and loop-like. Logically flowing sections and episodes correspond to the movements in a traditional symphonic structure. It demonstrates vivid thematicism, solid orchestral development with expressive outbursts, lyrical exuberance and solemn pathos, and rich instrumental colour. The Symphony No. 1 is among the composer’s opuses that are very rarely performed.