/ world today news/ Ruslan Raichev – a world-class Bulgarian conductor – 100 years since his birth
Ruslan Raichev was a unique phenomenon in our opera and in Bulgarian musical culture. Unlike most of his colleagues, who profiled themselves as “symphonic”, “operatic” and “operetta”, he was “universal” – simply because he could do everything. He was born, both for the theater and the concert podium. He made a remarkable, brilliant career not only in our country, but also abroad, perhaps the only one of its kind and in its scope for a Bulgarian conductor so far. I think that if he had been born German or English he would have been recognized on a par with Abbado or Kurt Mazur.
He was born on May 5, 1919, under the sign of Taurus in Milan, during the tours of his famous father, the tenor Petar Raichev / 1887-1960/, our first singer with world fame. As a child, he studied piano with Carlo Lopati and graduated from the children’s and middle school department of the Milan Conservatory “Giusepe Verdi”. A 14-year-old returned to Bulgaria with his parents and continued to study piano with Prof. Panka Pelishek and Prof. Andrey Stoyanov. He graduated from the German school in Sofia. In 1944 he graduated from the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied as a conductor under Prof. Ludwig Reichwein and in the meantime was a private student of the famous Karl Böhm, then chief conductor of the Vienna State Opera. He soon becomes his assistant. He also continued his piano lessons – already with the last student of Franz Liszt, Emil von Sauer. He also studied law, graduated, but never practiced.
In the spring of 1944 he was appointed conductor of the opera in Koningsberg / now Kaliningrad/, but he did not stay for long and arrived in Sofia. At the Opera, he was entrusted with the ballet “Bakhchisarai Fountain” by Asafiev, with which his Bulgarian career began. But soon he left Sofia and in 1946 went to Varna. His father is the director and director there. Together with him, he staged Smetana’s masterpiece “Broken Bride” and with its premiere on September 10, 1947, it was officially opened Varna National Opera. After giving many performances and concerts, he returned to Sofia and became the chief conductor of the newly founded State Musical Theatre. He worked on this stage until 1950, staging several classic operettas by Zeller, Kalmann, Strauss-son, Offenbach. Dissatisfied with the working conditions at the Operetta, he decides to leave it. From 1951 to 1956, he headed the Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra and turned it into a philharmonic. At that time, it was the best orchestra after the Metropolitan Philharmonic. But, like his famous father, Ruslan Raichev cannot stay in one place for long.
In 1956-1958 he was already in Ruse. In our Danube capital, he worked for the symphony orchestra and the Ruse Opera. His stay, albeit short, gave a strong boost to both squads. His concerts and especially his production of “Manon” by Masnes the unforgettable Penka Marinova and Nikolay Zdravkov mark a high point in the history of these institutes. “Manon” was awarded at a review of opera houses, and the recording is included in the Golden Fund of the BNR. Years later, he returned as a guest to successfully stage another French opera “Fra Diavolo” by Aubert, also with a first-class solo cast: Konstantin Yankov, Violeta Shahanova, Ana Angelova, Ivan Dobrev.
After Ruse, Ruslan Raichev goes to Stara Zagora. In the oldest musical theater after the capital’s, he staged “Bohemia” and “Masquerade Ball”. For two years he was the chief conductor of the symphony orchestra founded by him Pillow case and the capital choir “Gusla”. Then he is back in Sofia, at the Opera, and in the meantime he also conducts many symphonic programs…
In 1968 when he was first director of The Sofia National Operasoon gave up his directorial duties and became its chief conductor, working also for the first-class Plovdiv Philharmonic / today abbreviated by our ignorant rulers from GERB!/. This compatibility lasted six creative seasons, after which the 55-year-old maestro left for Germany. Western impresarios accept him as a “gift from heaven” / a great conductor with a great repertoire! / and they immediately included him in active professional activity – from 1974 to 1979, he was already the general music director of the music ensembles of the entire state of Schleswig-Holstein. Then he again became the chief artistic director and chief conductor of… the Sofia Opera! His attempt to attract the most famous Bulgarian opera singers from abroad for systematic cooperation in it and to regulate the foreign tours of those of them who are on staff in the opera, ended in a spectacular scandal! Ruslan Raichev was “dethroned” from the post of director and continued to work in the opera as a conductor. Then he was invited to musically stage the opera “Boris Godunov” by Mussorgsky at the Paris Grand Opera and he accepted the offer. In the midst of preparations for the premiere performance, he unexpectedly received a message from Bulgaria that he was appointed to conduct the solemn concert on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Nikolay Gyaurov, and both appearances coincided. Thanks to his exceptional resourcefulness and flexibility, he found the only correct solution for the situation – with a private French plane, provided by the Grand Opera, he “flied” to Sofia to conduct Gyaurov’s concert and immediately after that he “flew” back to Paris to perform the next day the premiere of “Boris Godunov”! From that moment his great world career began. He tours regularly in almost all of Europe, conducts in Milan / the first and so far the only Bulgarian musician to perform there!/, Rome, Paris, London, Vienna, Moscow, Berlin, Stockholm, Warsaw, Prague, Bucharest… And also in the world – the United States, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Japan, Australia, Korea… He conducted a number of world opera stars: Domingo, Freni, Cappuccili, Carreras, Giaurov, Richarelli, Scotto, Bruzon…
Throughout his creative journey, Ruslan Raichev worked hard, tirelessly, thoroughly, in German with precision. But his temperament was undoubtedly southern – Bulgarian, Italian / his mother was Italian from Milan/. His ability to build a form, to be extremely faithful to the author’s style, to work hard and dedicatedly with the singers and the orchestra / always achieving excellent results in a short time!/, to make a real, exciting musical theater rank him among the great world conductors of our time. He sleeps only 4-5 hours, rehearses with the singers and ensembles all day, conducts a show or concert in the evening, regularly makes recordings for BNR, BNT, Balkanton and foreign companies – some of them are awarded with prestigious awards. Maintains an extensive operatic repertoire. It is difficult to single out his greatest successes. All of them are the fruit of a remarkable synthesis between his emotionality and his intellect. And yet, I would single out: “Othello”, “Nabucco”, “Don Carlos”, “Aida”, “Carmen”, “Manon”, “Fra Diavolo”, “War and Peace”. He works extremely effectively with the singers, because he knows how to sing and is a born theatrical performer. His authority as a musician is enormous and despite his difficult nature, he is valued and respected by all.
It can be said that in the years after the war until 1989, when the Bulgarian state created conditions for culture and art at a high level, Ruslan Raichev and Asen Naydenov were the two pillars of Bulgarian musical culture.
His place is now empty. Today, Bulgarian musical theaters and orchestras/ as far as they remained after the destructive “reforms” of Kostov. Moscow and especially Borisov-Rashidov /need a second Ruslan Raichev and hopefully one will appear soon, because soon we will be without orchestras, conductors and instrumentalists…
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