site.btaCULTURAMA FEST Celebrates Ravel's 150th Birth Anniversary

Maurice Ravel's 150th birth anniversary is a highlight on the programme of the CULTURAMA FEST, which is taking place in Sofia between June 13 and 28, 2025.

On June 21, the Bulgaria Hall hosted a concert entirely consisting of works by the great French composer. The programme typified Ravel's unique and compelling style on the borderline of Impressionism and Modernism. The Vratsa Symphony Orchestra under Hristo Pavlov opened the evening with Alborada del Gracioso. Next, internationally acclaimed Bulgarian pianist Emanuil Ivanov excelled in the Concerto in G Major. Soprano Ina Kancheva performed with panache the three songs of the Sheherazade cycle. The closing piece was La Valse, the most unexpected of Ravel's compositions.

A further tribute to the Impressionist genius will be paid on June 25, when Japanese pianist Tamayo Ikeda and Emanuil Ivanov will showcase their shared passion for Ravel by a four-hands performance of two of his most notable and celebrated works: a piano transcription of La Valse and the Bolero. The concert, titled Nocturnal Garden, will also feature Gabriel Faure's Nocturne No. 6, Frederic Chopin's Berceuse, Fazil Say's song Black Earth, Claude Debussy's prelude Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir, Emanuil Ivanov's Nocturne (especially commissioned for CULTURAMA 2025), and Leopold Godowsky's The Gardens of Buitenzorg (part of the Java Suite).

The concept of this year's edition of the Festival is mottoed "THE GARDEN OF SOUND". It covers a wide range of performing and visual art events: concerts, exhibitions, film screenings and discussions. The celebrated Catalan musician Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI presented The Baroque Revolution 1560-1660. The high-class Polish ensemble Bandonegro treated the Bulgarian audience to a Milonga tango evening.

The vocal Trio Anae from France gushed out in a Brazilian Polyphony extravaganza. Miroslava Ivanova - Hosen demonstrated Moribana and Nageire style Ikebana. The Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet from Greece combined the primordial sound of the lyre with a piano trio, mixing Balkan and Mediterranean musical traditions. Ina Kancheva will bring together eight instrumentalists from various countries for Orient Express, an eclectic selection of works by prominent authors from all over Europe in an organic fusion with Gypsy, Balkan, Turkish, Greek, and Mediterranean traditions.

The closing event of the 2025 CULTURAMA will be BG Music for Trumpets, an open-air concert of recent works by Bulgarian composers, performed by famous soloists Mikhail Yosifov, Stoyan Stoyanov, Peter Makedonsky and Alin Budka, accompanied by the Vratsa Symphony Orchestra.

BTA is among the media partners of CULTURAMA.