Composer: Emil Tabakov
Performer: Entcho Radoukanov
Orchestra: Symphony Orchestra of Bulgarian National Radio
Conductor: Emil Tabakov
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0530
Release: 2019
Size: 736 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Concerto for double bass and orchestra
01. I. Allegro
02. II. Lento
03. III. Vivace
Symphony No. 5
04. I. Spirituoso
05. II. Largo
06. III. Allegro moderato
07. IV. Finale. Andante
Emil Tabakov first took to the podium at the age of seventeen and won the Nikolai Malko Young Conductors Competition in Copenhagen in 1977. At the head of a number of Bulgarian orchestras and as guest conductor of many orchestras elsewhere he has performed all over the world. Beginning to compose at the age of fourteen, he has been always drawn towards the big symphonic forms and numbers Shostakovich, Brahms, Skryabin and Richard Strauss among his foremost influences. He has now written ten symphonies and an impressive series of concertos.
The Symphony Orchestra of Bulgarian National Radio has acquired a leading position in Bulgarian musical culture and among the community of radio formations of Europe. The extensive development of the Orchestra to reach the standards of a prominent professional ensemble began under the Vassil Stefanov (1913–91), who took up his position in 1954 and worked with the Orchestra for over thirty years, during which time the SOBNR turned into one of the leading cultural institutions of Bulgaria. From late 2008 until early 2016 the principal conductor was Emil Tabakov. Since then the position has been occupied first by Rossen Gergov and now by Mark Kadin.
The music of the Bulgarian composer-conductor Emil Tabakov (b. 1947) explores the darker side of the human spirit in epic scores as austere as they are powerful. His mighty Fifth Symphony, a work almost an hour in length, is obsessive and violent, with the two outer movements, wild kaleidoscopes of whirling colours and driving energy, framing a tragic slow movement and a sardonic march. The much earlier Double-Bass Concerto, which sits downstream from Shostakovich, shows the same grim sense of humour in the teeth of the dancing indifference of fate.