The unique folk music of Bulgaria has inspired many composers, especially as it was able to preserve its originality during the 500 years of Ottoman rule. Marin Goleminov and Pancho Vladigerov grew up with this music. She is not only an inspiration for them, but also a source of strength, an irrepressible joie de vivre, which, in Vladigerov's case, makes a whole orchestra sound in a quartet.
Bulgarian composers also strived to achieve a national style in chamber music. The two composers on this CD combined irregular bars, typical of Balkan music, with late-Romantic compositional techniques, which they perfected during their studies in Paris (Goleminov) and Berlin (Vladigerov). The Herder Prize in 1976 for Goleminov and the Mendelssohn Prize in 1918 and 1920 for Vladigerov testify to the recognition of her compositional skills outside of her homeland.
With this CD, the cellist Elena Natschkova Iskraut fulfilled her dream of making the magic of Bulgarian music known to a larger audience. She was encouraged by the fact that her 3 colleagues Agnieszka P?pkowska, Almut Seidel and Matthias Schella were immediately enthusiastic. With a lot of enthusiasm and vigour, they were able to realize their dream together.
All four musicians have long been members of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Staatstheater Cottbus, which can look back on more than one hundred years of history and was awarded the best concert program in Germany in 2012. The AMEA Quartet was founded in preparation for the chamber concert "Musical Impressions from Bulgaria" in the 2011/12 season at the Staatstheater Cottbus and has since worked on other programs as well. One focus is Eastern European music. The Staatstheater Cottbus made the rehearsal stage available for the recording of this CD. AMEA would like to thank you for this and for all further support.
01 Molto sostenuto - Allegro moderato
02 Scherzando
03 Andante sostenuto
04 Allegro comodo
05 Grave - Allegro con brio
06 Andante doloroso
07 Scherzo. Vivace molto ritmico
08 Grave - Allegro con fuoco - Allegro vivace
