site.btaVratsa Symphony Orchestra Marks 65th Anniversary of Kaval Player Theodosii Spassov

On Friday night, the Vratsa Symphony Orchestra performed a concert in celebration of the 65th anniversary of Bulgarian kaval player Theodosii Spassov.           

The programme featured some of Verdi’s works, beginning with the overture to the opera La Traviata, followed by Concerto Fantasia on Motives from Rigoletto by Luigi Bassi, and virtuoso Bulgarian-British clarinetist Boyan Ivanov as soloist.

The connection to the second part of the concert, when Theodosii Spassov took the stage, was Hora Staccato by Grigoras Dinicu. Dinicu was a Romanian virtuoso violinist and composer of Roma origin, and the only orchestral arrangement of this piece was made by Pancho Vladigerov.

This was followed by Spassov’s original Concerto for Kaval, Clarinet, and Symphony Orchestra, in which the two instruments led the audience through the different genres of folk music, jazz, and classical music. The work is in three movements and is dedicated to the Bulgarian clarinetist Ilian Iliev, with whom Spassov has performed it many times in the past with various orchestras across Bulgaria.

The concert concluded with four original pieces by Theodosii Spassov – The Goat Island, Jovka Kumanovka, Strange Occasion, and Gypsy Dance.  Before each piece, Spassov would tell the audience the story behind it.

The conductor of the concert, Hristo Pavlov, had prepared a surprise for Spassov, by bringing on stage beloved Bulgarian singer Vassil Petrov with an emotional rendition of the folk song Devoiko, Mari Hubava.

In the end, the soloists and the orchestra returned for an encore and played Gypsy Dance. Before performing it, Spassov explained that when students of the folklore school in Kotel, which he also attended, are asked which school they study at, they answer “the right school,” because “besides the formal musical education, we also take lessons from the Roma neighborhood. Other schools don’t have Roma neighborhoods.” Spassov demonstrated to the audience just how enriching and beautiful Roma music can be.

Before the concert, Theodosii Spassov told BTA that the most important thing in his creative work is to show where the music comes from and to make it sound authentically Bulgarian.