Dimitar Nenov (1901–1953)
The Architect’s View – music for solo piano
Veneta Neynska (piano)
rec. 2021, Professor Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music, Bulgaria
CRD 3557 [46]
Still largely unknown outside his home country, Dimitar Nenov belongs to the so-called Second Generation Bulgarian Composers that emerged between the two world wars. He was largely self-taught as a musician before commencing studies in Dresden, also graduating as an architect in 1927. He returned to Bulgaria and served as a Ministry architect on public works and railways among other things. At the same time he became a leading cultural figure there, ultimately having a distinguished teaching post as a professor of piano at Sofia Conservatoire.
Pianist Veneta Neynska describes playing Nenov’s music as “like deciphering an intricate puzzle… his works [seemingly] deceptively simple or impossibly difficult…” Her interpretations take into consideration Nenov’s mindset as an architect, bearing in mind volumes and physical space as part of the canvas of his expressive world, but I don’t think it helps to get too hung up on this idea. Any difficulties here are more technical and the concern of the performer, than in terms of idiom and a worry for the listener.
The opening Meditation is a relatively early work and richly romantic in the spirit of Chopin and Liszt, perhaps with a hint or Rachmaninov as a point of reference. This sets the scene for what follows, with similarly expansive sonorities in the first of the Miniatures, a Prelude into which a certain amount of polytonality and splashes of clustered notes in the right hand, a bit like Erroll Garner. The Miniatures are split in the programme which seems a bit unnecessary, but the intervening Fairytale is lighter in texture, led by a heartfelt melody. This and the following Dance were apparently his last works for piano, the latter being a true miniature at 1:29, and a sprightly moment before we get into the rest of the Miniatures.
These are indeed brief pieces but are by no means insubstantial. Song is a powerful arch-form that reaches a mighty climax, while Staccato is perhaps reminiscent of Mussorgsky’s Tuileries mixed with the Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks. The beautiful Pastoral is a space of stillness and repose that runs into the final Bagpipe, a sonorous piece that sets up a bass drone over which a melody develops, the unusual modality of which we are told is a D Mixolydian. Etude No. 1 is similarly unconventional, with its rapid figurations set in an octatonic scale.
The largest work here is the Theme and Variations, the 20 variations of which are spread over nearly 18 minutes. Each variation is like an etude, “each addressing a specific technical pianistic challenge”, but this goes beyond being a set of pedagogical exercises and the piece received acclaim on its performances throughout Europe. There is some Bulgarian folk spirit in the theme, but Nenov was against the imitation of folk music and there is no evidence that this is any kind of quotation. The strong individual identity of each variation is such that we’re left just enjoying what unfolds before us, with witty and almost jazz-inflected moments contrasting with jaw-dropping passages of pianistic wizardry into a work that deserves a much wider revival. The programme closes with another substantial work, the Toccata,which counts as “one of the most virtuosic pieces in Bulgarian piano literature.” There are relationships with Bartók’s style in this work’s percussive rhythmic drive and modality, but this is also music that could only be written by a highly skilled pianist, exploring every aspect of the instrument’s dynamic and colouristic range to create something of lasting and timeless impact.
Expertly performed and very well recorded with a rich piano sound, this is a discovery that deserves any serious collector’s attention. A comparison should be made with Viktor Valkov’s recording on the Grand Piano label (GP652), which covers much of the same repertoire and also includes the Cinema Suite. Valkov’s touch is more steely in the opening of the Toccata and elsewhere where the dynamic demands. He is equal to Neynska in terms of colouristic variety but perhaps a little less poetic in the more impressionistic pieces. It is also worth knowing that Nenov’s powerful Piano Concerto has a recording on the Hyperion label with Ivo Varbanov and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Emil Tabakov (review), a release that came close to becoming a MWI recording of the year in 2017.
Dominy Clements
Previous review: Rob Barnett
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Contents
Meditation (1923/24)
Miniatures: I. Prelude (1945/46)
Fairytale
Dance
Miniatures: Song; Staccato; Pastoral; Bulgarian Bagpipe (1945/46)
Etude No. 1 (1931/32)
Theme and Variations (I-XX) (1926-1932)
Toccata (1932-1942)
