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]
CRD used to have a more prominent place in the world of recorded music. Now, like Saydisc, it exercises a more discreet spell and falls under the Nimbus/Wyastone Leys cloak.
The music of DimitarNenov is the product of a deeply serious and sumptuously expressive romantic, who was active in the first half of the last century. Never once does the mask slip but that is not the end of the story. The folk element is strong in Bulgarian composer Nenov ,who can loosely be thought of as a sort of amalgam of Kodály and Bartók; perhaps more Kodály than Bartók. If you are partial to the piano music of those two Eastern European composers then Nenov should appeal.
I say this on the evidence of this disc and of the Hyperion CD which carries Nenov’s 45-minute Piano Concerto. The Concerto is quite a massif of a work from a composer who, on the evidence of the current catalogue, was very much at ease with brief folk-accented piano solos, dances and mood-atmosphere pieces. His expressive style reminds me that certain Guild label discs inhabit the same territory. Guild gave us the heaving and rippling folk culture of Albania as espoused by Kirsten Johnson in her Kenge and Rapsodi CDs. I could never understand why we did not hear more. As it turned out, those two CDs did not set a trend; rather a dead end. Pity.
So far as biography is concerned, rather like Borodin and Rawsthorne, Nenov pursued two careers in parallel. In Nenov’s case it was architecture – hence the title of this disc. He was a contemporary of a more ‘famous’ composer whose music has had some very agreeable in-depth attention on Capriccio: Pancho Vladigerov (1899-1978). He survived Nenov by some 25 years. Nenov’s academic and career trajectory had him spending his maturity in Italy and Germany as well as Bulgaria. His name figured commandingly in Bulgarian musical life and continued to exert an influence after his death in Sofia some three-quarters of a century ago.
As to the music, it’s deeply serious, tonal and lightened by folk-DNA. Nenov can be sumptuously expressive and romantic and his language is smelted from the same fructiferous ‘ore’ as that of Rachmaninov. Just occasionally it has you thinking of Sorabji or, more plausibly, of Szymanowski. The pieces here are all fairly short; no chance of becoming bored or becalmed. His unhurried Meditation is delicately romantic and the Prelude suggests the movement of deliquescent fishes. The Fairytale coasts close to Medtner; at the same time functioning as a musical counterpart to Kay Nielsen. Other pieces – and everything is most skilfully and movingly projected by Nenov-champion, Veneta Neynska – are nicely rounded. Nenov clearly has a feeling for darkling drama, chattering staccato, dignified soliloquy and Kodály-like trilling and twisting. Just occasionally a dark cloud passes when the music seems just to stop without having fully developed. The final track, Toccata, buzzes, hums and tumbles. I wonder if Ronald Stevenson ever heard Nenov’s music. It would, I think, have spoken to him.
A slightly problematic disc in the sense that it does not identify its total playing duration nor the playing time of individual pieces. It appears to run to just under 50 minutes but even that is not quite clear. Still this does not compromise the musical values.
The booklet essays, by Veneta Neynska, are essential background reading. Ms Neynska’s name gets self-effacing treatment on the cover and insert of the disc. It merits more prominence.
The whole thing – music and documentation – must please the disc’s collaborative supporters: the Bulgarian Historical Archive and the National Culture Fund of Bulgaria. It should please you.
Rob Barnett
Other review: Dominy Clements
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Contents
Meditation
Miniatures: I. Prelude
Fairytale
Dance
Miniatures: Song; Staccato; Pastoral; Bulgarian Bagpipe
Etude No. 1
Theme and Variations (I-XX)
Toccata
