The recordings in the present release are dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pancho Vladigerov (1899-1978), a classic of Bulgarian music school. The CD includes some of his most popular piano pieces. Created in the 1920s and 1930s, they express his unique style and specific character. His works are closely related to Bulgarian folk music and at the same time they are greatly influenced by 19th-century German and French music. A brilliant pianist himself, who enjoyed an active concert-giving career, his music is full of virtuosity and technical ornamentation.
Rada Chomakova graduated from the Pancho Vladigerov State Academy of Music. Later she attended piano lessons in Moscow, Paris and Prague. She is holder of many awards from home and international piano competitions. Beginning her concert-giving career at the age of 12, she is now both a remarkable teacher and concertizing artist. Since 1994 she has been directing annual piano master classes in Baden-Baden, Germany. Her repertoire includes a large number of chamber works and concertos for piano and orchestra, which she has performed with Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and other orchestras both nationwide and abroad. Her formation as a pianist has been much influenced by Pancho Vladigerov himself, under whose guidance she worked on some of the compositions recorded on this CD. Her manner of performance is marked by a stable touch, virtuosity, temperament, a fine sense of dynamics and details, and richness of tone colours. The release also features the performance of one of her pupils, Dessislava Shtereva, who is a concertizing artist at present. The two pianists in fact represent two successive generations in Bulgaria's school of piano, thus drawing a bridge between the past and present trends of Bulgarian musical art. Their performance also reveals an original and fascinating interpretation of some of the best-loved piano works of Pancho Vladigerov.