Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, Violoncello and Orchestra

A number of Victor Chouchkov's works have been commissioned. The inspiration for writing the Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra was the famous Bulgarian pianist Svetozar Ivanov, who lives and works in the USA. The commisioner is the University of South Florida in Tampa where he teaches as a professor in piano. "The idea came when we played Beethoven's Triple Concerto with an orchestra in the USA. I thought it would be good to have other concerts for this combination. "the pianist says, "Victor and I are good friends and I really like his music. At the time he had come to Florida for a concert and masterclass at our university.I shared my idea with him and he got agitated with it immediately." The world premiere of the work was on March 24^th, 2005 in Sofia, very soon after it was composed. The soloists with the Sofia Philharmonic were Svetozar Ivanov - piano, Carolyn Stuart- violin and Scott Kluksdah - cello. The conductor was Nayden Todorov. The American premiere was in 2006 in Tampa featuring the same soloists and the South Florida Symphony Orchestra conducted by William Widrick. In 2007 the Triple Concerto was recorded with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the same soloists again, under the baton of Nayden Todorov. The composer shares, "The Triple concerto is in two movements. The second part is an allusion to the well-known traditional song, dedicated to the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Shishman and the heroic battles against the Ottoman invaders. It was first published in 1848. The soloists have a prominent and transparent presence - a non-improvised conversation with the orchestra in a lyrical-dramatic aspect. They also have distinguished solo cadenzas". In his composition Victor Chouchkov demonstrates a completely different approach to the Triple Concerto form. Not only in terms of the structure, which he builds as a magnificent tone diptych, but also to the "parts " played by the soloists. The piano is the natural foundation in the piano trio ensemble and features actively in the collaboration with the other soloists and the orchestra. The concerto begins with an orchestral "explosion" that collapses into the fragile piano theme. Then comes the cello, followed by the violin. The trio is now in full complement. Like a nostalgic vision, a melody passes into the accordion. And themes, images, moods swirl in a kaleidoscopic fantasy. The second movement begins with a motif from the aforementioned traditional song, which, however, does not carry any programmatic idea, but intriguingly becomes an "object" of intertextual interaction. Indicative are the soloists' cadenzas, in which thematic grains of it are embellished with jazz elements, and towards the finale the accordion voice appears as a reminiscence.