Conductor Viliana Valtcheva talks with Gregor Tassie
Bulgaria’s music is greatest identified for its magnificent choirs and the endless stream of singers who’ve develop into celebrated on the planet’s most well-known opera theatres. Boris Christov, Ghena Dimitrova, Lyuba Welitsch, Nicolai Ghiaurov, and Sonya Yoncheva are just some Bulgarians who’ve develop into stars on the world stage.
There’s a distinguished faculty of instrumentalists, however comparatively few conductors, with one main exception within the good Emil Tchakarov, who turned legendary throughout a comparatively transient interval, till his loss of life on the early age of 43 in Paris. A prodigy of Karajan, Tchakarov was famend on the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Backyard, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Mariinsky Theatre, amongst many others. Mravinsky picked him as his successor earlier than his early loss of life in 1991.
Since then, few Bulgarian conductors have develop into identified exterior Bulgaria; the composer/conductor Emil Tabakov and Nayden Todorov are amongst a number of who’ve labored extensively in Europe, and lately a younger lady, Delyana Lazarova, has loved success because the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Principal Visitor Conductor, making her debut on the 2025 BBC Proms in London. On a go to to Sofia this 12 months, I used to be very impressed by the work of Viliana Valtcheva, who directed a live performance of fairly totally different works throughout various genres with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra. I used to be fortunate that afterwards I spoke to this excellent younger Bulgarian conductor.
Gregor Tassie: You started your musical training on the Dobri Hristov Nationwide Faculty of Arts in your hometown of Varna. Are you from a musical household, and what attracted you to creating music your profession?
Viliana Valtcheva: I don’t come from a musical household, however my mother and father have at all times been passionate lovers of classical music and opera. They repeatedly took me to opera and ballet performances, symphonic live shows and recitals. As a really younger youngster, I used to be the one who expressed the want to play the piano, and so they supported me wholeheartedly.
GT: You bought a serious in piano in Varna earlier than finding out on the Hochschule der Künste Bern in Switzerland. With totally different academics, you studied piano, bassoon, chamber, and orchestral conducting in addition to musicology. At what time did you resolve to make conducting your profession?
VV: I had at all times wished to develop into a conductor – and particularly an opera conductor. As a baby within the theatre, what fascinated me most was what was occurring within the orchestra. I beloved listening to the musicians’ tuning, taking part in fragments and melodies from the efficiency that was about to start, and listening to all these particular person sounds regularly blended into one. That world captivated me from the very starting.
GT: It has been traditionally troublesome for younger girls to interrupt into the conducting occupation, as a result of it’s dominated by male conductors, so did you discover it troublesome to develop a profession and do you have got any mentors that gave you a particular affect in your profession? Do you take heed to well-known conductors’ recordings and who had been they?
VV: In fact I encountered difficulties, and I proceed to come across them. On the similar time, I had the big privilege of finding out conducting in Lucerne at a time when among the biggest conductors of the 20th century had been nonetheless with us and repeatedly appeared at one of many world’s most prestigious festivals, the Lucerne Competition. I used to be lucky to take part actively in masterclasses with Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, and Claudio Abbado. I additionally had the chance to help Zubin Mehta on a number of events, and to work as an intern on the Zurich Opera Home with Nello Santi and Fabio Luisi. My conducting professor was Ralf Weikert, the long-serving Music Director of the Zurich Opera – somebody I might enterprise to name one of many final nice representatives of the previous operatic custom. These encounters formed me profoundly.
GT: What was the most important affect on you taking on conducting?
VV: I merely love conducting and making music. For me, it’s the most stunning occupation on the planet – supplied one has the chance to apply it in good theatres and with effective orchestras, and supplied one is sufficiently ready, each technically and intellectually, to serve the artwork of the good composers and interpret their music with integrity and as authentically as doable.
GT: In your Sofia live performance, you directed 4 fairly totally different works, and importantly one among them is a Bulgarian. Do you need to open up Vladigerov’s music to new audiences? Do you have got a mission to uncover much less well-known composers as you additionally performed Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto – a uncommon piece within the live performance corridor? Which composers appeal to you most of all?
VV: Sure, I might very very like to conduct Vladigerov overseas and assist deliver Bulgarian music to wider worldwide audiences. Bulgaria has many outstanding composers and a wealth of extraordinary music that deserves to be heard. I’ve performed fairly various not often carried out composers and works, and I’m at all times able to be taught a bit that lies exterior the usual repertoire. I take pleasure in difficult myself. As for the composers who appeal to me most, it’s nearly not possible to provide a definitive reply, as a result of each nice composer has works of genius that should be carried out. But when I had to decide on two, I might say Stravinsky and Richard Strauss.
GT: Are there any modern composers that curiosity you?
VV: I can not single out one modern composer particularly. My curiosity is just not decided by whether or not a composer is established, modern, or not often carried out, however by the standard and individuality of the work itself. As I discussed, I’m at all times fascinated about discovering worthwhile music and in taking over repertoire that presents a real inventive problem.
GT: Following conducting appointments at Lucerne and Zurich Opera Theatres, you might be engaged at two Opera and Ballet Theatres in Bulgaria; Ruse and Varna. Presently you might be working largely in Italian repertoire, and Bulgarian voices have an awesome fame on this repertoire, so is that this the route you favor?
VV: I work not solely in Ruse and Varna, however all through Bulgaria. The Nationwide Opera and Ballet continues to be lacking from that record – for the second. My strongest affinity is definitely with Italian opera, a repertoire of virtually inexhaustible richness. However I additionally conduct French and German opera. I’m notably proud that in 2014 I used to be a scholarship recipient of the Richard Wagner Basis in Bayreuth, and through my years in Switzerland I labored extensively on German opera, together with Wagner and Mozart’s Singspiel custom. I might very very like to see extra of Richard Strauss’s operas carried out in Bulgaria as properly.
GT: You might have labored largely in opera in Europe and Bulgaria, do you see opera as probably the most engaging profession for you and mastering the problem of directing giant scale musical teams of orchestral, choral and singers.
VV: Opera has at all times been my biggest ardour. For me, it represents the very best degree of complexity in our artwork type: it brings collectively orchestra, singers, refrain, theatre and drama, and calls for a rare diploma of musical and human responsiveness from a conductor. On the similar time, I tremendously take pleasure in substantial symphonic programmes and live shows with excellent soloists. I might by no means need to surrender in both world.
GT: Many ladies musicians discover it troublesome to work efficiently on the worldwide live performance circuit, with extended journey and assimilating totally different cultures internationally. What are your personal private ambitions?
VV: I might additionally like, in some unspecified time in the future, to tackle an administrative and inventive management function inside an opera home. And I wish to be among the many Bulgarian girls conductors who’re given the chance to conduct in main worldwide opera homes. Sure – that could be a dream of mine.
GT: Right this moment, we will take heed to nearly any piece of music by way of the web. How do you see the way forward for classical music in Bulgaria now that folks take pleasure in this a lot better entry to music?
VV: Nonetheless huge the quantity of music, data and selection accessible by way of the web might develop into, nothing can change the expertise of being current at a dwell efficiency. The immediacy of dwell music – the shared focus, the bodily presence of the sound, and the distinctive connection between performers and viewers – can’t be reproduced by any digital medium.
GT: Thanks in your time and greatest needs for the long run.
VV: Thanks very a lot in your curiosity and for the dialog. It has been a pleasure.
Gregor Tassie
