Composer: Emil Tabakov
Orchestra: Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Alexander Zemtsov
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0410
Release: 2017
Size: 276 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Symphony No. 1
01. I. Moderato
02. II. Largo
03. III. Largo – Presto
Viola Concerto
04. I. Largo – Più mosso – Largo
05. II. Largo
06. III. Presto
The Bulgarian conductor and composer Emil Tabakov (born 1947) follows in the footsteps of such musicians as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, being active as both composer and conductor. Like Mahler and Strauss, he prefers to write for large forces and now has nine symphonies to his name. Again like Mahler (more than Strauss, at any rate), Tabakov’s symphonies explore the darker side of the human spirit in epic scores as austere as they are powerful. The second volume of the complete Tabakov editions, world premiere recordings, contains the First Symphony and the Viola Concerto (played by violist Alexander Zemtsov); both works use small motifs to build up compelling symphonic structures, generating expansive, sometimes bleak, post-Shostakovichian landscapes that can explode with violence and energy.