Pancho Vladigerov: Stage Music (Orchestral Works)

As Pancho Vladigerov’s work becomes more widely accessible, the clearer it becomes that he was the most significant of Bulgaria’s composers, extending his influence well after his death in 1978. Revered in his lifetime, he was in a position to continue his work largely unaffected by the ideological demands of the Communist regime, although his musical language – tonal and grounded in the late Romantic tradition – wasn’t likely to provoke any reprisals. Yet in these works for the stage, Vladigerov displays a cosmopolitan side, easily slipping into the world of Strindberg for his Scandinavian Suite, chinoiserie for The Chalk Circle, based on the play by Klabund, and exoticism for Caesar and Cleopatra, based on the play by George Bernard Shaw.