For The Greatest And Little Things (*)
Interviewing Wladigeroff brothers is a challenge. Alexander is sending jokes to Constantine, who receives them and send them back, with an impressive speed. Our meeting in Vienna, the city of Otto Wagner and Gustav Klimt, is about people and things they like, and about music that is decorated with Balkan embroideries and dressed in the clothes of jazz, the musical style towards which they keep walking more than 14 years. The word and the sense for them are love and friendship, with that touch of innocence that has not left them since childhood.
You were born in Sofia, in one of the most popular musical families in Bulgaria. What does Vienna mean to you?
We are happy to live and work (create) in this city! For us Vienna is a great and important European metropolis — the capital of a significant cultural tradition.
For all people here art and music are on a pedestal. This is exactly what maintains a strong and spiritual connection between them. This is what inspires us and fills us with creative energy.
What is to be a successor of Pancho Wladigerov (*)?
This is a big responsibility! A musical course of life that is predetermined for us, and we must continue.
What about classical education …?
This is the basis for the growth of a musician – the thinking, the discipline and the richness of classical music guide the musician in developing himself professionally in every other musical style.
What kind of instruments from the traditional folklore do you use?
Folklore instruments are instruments that help us enrich our musical world:
vocals, tupan* and kaval.
The appearance of typical Bulgarian instruments in our compositions creates a specific and unique sound and enriches it, varies the timbre and rhythm in our musical ideas.
On the issue of globalization and small cultures …
In our opinion civilizations could not exist without art and music, no matter in what environment and society they are.
In this sense, globalization should not be an obstacle.
How does a musician and composer live from their art? …
Music is a gift from God and requires a lot of dedication and talent … The one who has it inside and is able to create with it, can live from that no matter where and when he lives!
So far we have issued three albums:
“Wаnderer In Love” ‘2007 Extraplatte; ” First Opuses” ‘2009 with original music from Alexander P. Wladigeroff- (1933-1993) и “For The Greatest And Little Things” ‘2011 / Holophone Video
This concert was shot on April 23d, 2011 in Montreal, Canada. The Jazz Trio was visiting the City of the Jazz as part of Bulgarian Art and Folk Fest in Toronto, Canada.
Bulgarian cuisine, Bulgarian taste, what do you like? …
LYUTENICHKA (Mom‘s!), BANICHKA (Mom‘s!), chubrichka (savory), red onion, Bulgarian tomatoes, fries (chips) and lukanka …
… Stuffed peppers (red) vegetarians / with meat, sarmi* , hotchpotch ….
* rolled vine leaves filled with rice and meat
Attitudes towards nature and the green scenario …?
We love nature and support all ideas and initiatives for one more ecological, green and clean world!
Favourite places in Bulgaria …?
Monasteries (Rila, Klisura, Bachkovski Zograph (in Athos!), cathedral “St. Al. Nevski“, the beaches near Kamen coast, Irakli and Shabla, Silistar and many others
Which three composers …?
Y. Sebastian Bach, Shostakovich and P. Vladigerov
How would you end this interview? ….
With a message from our sister Catherine, who wrote a message in the album for our Dad “First Opuses”:
“To Dad ….
When you departed from us we were not aware yet that we have been blessed by your music for life. Being a musician … this is a road … this is a gift! Now we know it and we are on the road… to the heights where you soared!”
Interview and photos by Lubomir Popiordanov, 2012
A little information about Pantcho Wladigeroff, the grandfather of Alexander and Konstantin:
(1899-1978) |
Pantcho Wladigeroff (1899 – 1978 ) is arguably the most influential
Bulgarian composer of all time. He was one of the first to successfully
combine the idioms of Bulgarian folk music with the Western European
art music tradition. He twice won the Mendelssohn Prize of the Academy
for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1, as well as his
Three Impressions for Orchestra Op. 9. In1920 Vladigerov started
working as music director of Deutsches Theater in Berlin under
the famous theater director Max Reinhardt. He gradually gained
considerable fame as a composer especially in the German-speaking
countries where a significant number of his works were published,
performed, and recorded.
Read more here: http://www.wladigeroff.com/wladigeroff.html
|