Vassil Kazandjiev - Symphony No. 3 (1983)

Vassil Kazandjiev - Symphony No. 3

1. Allegro 0:00
2. Lento 7:10
3. Presto. Allegro 13:43

Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Vassil Kazandjiev - conductor

Vassil Kazandjiev (1934) was one of the five innovators (together with Konstantin Iliev, Lazar Nikolov, Georgi Tutev, and Ivan Spassov) of Bulgarian contemporary music, and as such was blacklisted by the communist authorities in Bulgaria for many years. A child prodigy, at the age of 13 he became the private composition student of Iliev. On the recommendation of Bulgarian composer Parashkev Hadjiev he went to study composition and orchestration at the State Academy in Sofia with Pancho Vladigerov and conducting with Vladi Simeonov. As a student his compositional style showed the influence of Vladigerov, with regard to orchestration, and Hindemith in its formal clarity and accuracy. His first notable composition was the Divertimento for small orchestra (1957). He was one of the first Bulgarian composers who wrote dodecaphonic compositions (First Piano Sonata, 1959; First String Quartet, 1966). Kazandjiev attended the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1965. This event marked a major change in Kazandjiev’s compositional style, especially with the introduction of aleatoric elements and graphic notation, as in Complexi sonori for strings (1965). This same work was highly acclaimed following a performance given by the Sofia Soloists under the composer’s direction at the 1967 Zagreb Biennial Festival. Aspects of Bulgarian history and culture have also played an increasingly important role in his compositional processes. This is evident in his preoccupation with timbral and colouristic effects, as well as in his choice of subject matter. From the 1970s he has experimented with blending elements from Bulgarian orthodox and folk music – modal formulas, free improvisation (measureless folksongs), diaphonia, and other vocal and instrumental effects – with aleatoric devices. Some of his best-known works were composed during this period: The Living Icons (1970), Pictures from Bulgaria (1970), Apokalipsis (1976), Illuminations (1979), Triumph of the Bells (1972), Youth Album (1972), and the string quartets.

As a youth, Kazandjiev was deeply influenced by Iliev’s and Dobrin Petkov’s conducting styles and this later led to equally impressive career as a conductor. In 1957 he became conductor at the Sofia Opera, and later in 1962 he founded the Sofia Soloists Chamber Ensemble with which he achieved international acclaim, touring Europe, Asia, and the USA; he led the ensemble until 1978. In 1963 he was appointed teacher of score reading at the State Academy and later became professor of conducting. From 1979 to 1993 he was chief conductor of the Sofia National Radio Symphony Orchestra. In nearly 40 years teaching at the National Academy of Music in Sofia (1963–2002) he established his own conducting school, which went on to produce musicians working on several continents.

Image: Vassil Kazandjiev as a conductor (1995)