A brilliant composer, conductor and jazz pianist, Lyubomir Denev is one of the brightest figures in Bulgaria’s music life. He creates different genres of music, giving a lot of concerts and working for theatre and film productions in Bulgaria and abroad. Let’s kick off with a piano piece entitled The Biography of a Flower, in the performance of Lyubomir Denev.
In 2011 Lyubomir Denev turned 60 years. On that occasion the Sofia Music Week International Festival presented his works in a programme called “Lyubomir Denev and Friends”. What you are just about to hear is two pieces for solo voice and big band from the cycle Aphorisms based on the epigrams of popular Bulgarian poet and satirist Radoy Ralin. Coming up first The Past, followed by Hamlet’s Agonies in the rendition of Militsa Gladnishka and the BNR’s Big Band, conductor Lyubomir Denev.
Lyubomir Denev has graduated from the National Academy of Music in the capital, where he studied orchestral conducting under Professor Konstantin Iliev. Lyubomir Denev has conducted all of Bulgaria’s big symphony orchestras. For some 10 years he was conductor at the State Music Theatre. Since 1986 he has been a freelance musician. “I am a true ‘music nomad’- I’m changing genres all the time”, the composer says about himself.
“I feel as a link in a big chain, as part and parcel of a long tradition, Denev adds. As a performer and composer, I keep this tradition alive in a very natural manner. This is my identity. In my earlier works, one could catch elements from the style of great Bulgarian composers, such as Pancho Vladigerov, Lyubomir Pipkov, Konstantin Iliev and Marin Goleminov. An artist discovers his or her personal style slowly. Until he or she gets to that point, an artist’s style is stratified by various influences. I’ve composed pop, jazz and musicals as well as film, theatre, choral, chamber and symphonic music. What’s characteristic of my style is improvisation, which has got its place even in sonatas and choral songs. I often use the mode peculiarities of Bulgarian folklore and its metro rhythmic patterns, maybe because I’ve majored percussions at the class of Prof. Dobri Paliev. Some of my colleagues sense a sort of tolerance in my solo and chamber works. I attribute this to the experience I’ve gained in the musical and theatre genres. My stage works are 11 in total, including opera and ballet”.
Lyubomir Denev has authored the first Bulgarian rock musical called Tomorrow At Ten. His opera Love’s Labour’s Won inaugurated the New Verdi Theatre in Cairo, Egypt. His musical The Law of the Jungle was presented at St Denis University Centre in Paris back in 1993. We offer you now A Song of Bagira the Panther from The Law of the Jungle in the rendition of Olga Mihailova-Dinova.
Lyubomir Denev is known as a jazz pianist in Europe, the USA, Asia and Africa. He plays in different formations, working on many projects for solo piano and creating jazz improvisations. We are going to listen next to a jazz improvisation of Sarabande by George Friedrich Handel.
Next year viewers in Germany will be able to see the premiere of an impressive international project called The Salvation with the participation of Lyubomir Denev.
“In 2009-2010 I was invited to the Villa Concordia International Art House in Bamberg to join an international project. With the support of the Culture Ministry in Bavaria, we came up with a Bulgarian- German project dedicated to the rescue of Bulgarian Jews during World War II. The Salvation was indeed the first project on that topic, which recently has been of interest to modern-day artists. It’s a grand work for orchestra, singers and actors. We’ve called it ‘passion’. Its premiere is going to take place in Berlin in October 2012. At the moment we’re working on a programme for the Plovdiv Jazz Nights Festival. We are going to offer the cycle Aphorisms for a jazz trio”.
The last piece is called A Century-Old Conclusion, another ‘jazz aphorism’ of Lyubomir Denev, in the rendition of Militsa Gladnishka and the BNR’s Big Band.
Tracklist:
A1 Suite - I Movement 6:35
A2 Ritual Dance 6:10
A3 Scherzo 5:55
A2 Ritual Dance 6:10
A3 Scherzo 5:55
B1 Ballad About The River 10:07
B2 Pastoral 3:35
B3 Tribe Puti 5:05
B2 Pastoral 3:35
B3 Tribe Puti 5:05
Personnel:
Bass Guitar – Danail Draganov
Drums, Vibraphone, Xylophone, Percussion – Boris Dinev
Flute, Piccolo, Saxophone [Tenor] – Petko Tomanov
Piano, Fender Piano, Clavinet, Melotron, Mug Sinthesizer, Percussion – Lyubomir Denev
Drums, Vibraphone, Xylophone, Percussion – Boris Dinev
Flute, Piccolo, Saxophone [Tenor] – Petko Tomanov
Piano, Fender Piano, Clavinet, Melotron, Mug Sinthesizer, Percussion – Lyubomir Denev
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