/View.info/ 120 years since the birth of the great Bulgarian conductor
Maestro Asen Naydenov / 1899-1995/ was an era in Bulgarian opera. Imagine – 71 years at the conductor’s desk, more than 100 operas and ballets, 1318 performances and a large number, not counting concerts. Truly, a unique career! Bearing in mind that the Bulgarian opera recently celebrated its centenary, we can say that Maestro Naydenov had a happy fate.
“Music met me and introduced me to great personalities – he said in an interview on the occasion of his 95th anniversary. Giacomo Puccini, Feodor Chaliapin, Boris Hristov, Sergei Prokofiev, Herbert von Karajan, Boris Pokrovsky, Mirella Freni, Plàcido Domingo and others. My maxim is: “Learn from everyone!” Learn from the good and the bad! Avoid the unnecessary poisoning of the nerves by gossip and intrigue!”
He was born on September 12, 1899 under the sign of Virgo in our Black Sea capital, in a cultured family where music is held in high esteem. He has been playing the violin and piano since he was a child. When in 1905 his uncle brought a huge grand piano from St. Petersburg to Varna, the six-year-old Asen became addicted to it! In 1912-1914, as a high school student, he already played as a violist in the city symphony orchestra. In 1920 he studied composition in Vienna with Joseph Marx and piano with Paul de Kon. In 1921 he was in Leipzig. Already a student of composition and piano. He supported himself by playing in various orchestras. Then he decided to become a conductor and began lessons with the famous Hans Hochkofler of the Leipzig Opera.
Returning to Bulgaria – already solidly educated, he joined the Sofia Opera as a trainee conductor. Here I want to open a parenthesis: at that time, the practice in our country, as well as in musical theaters in Europe, was completely different from today. Today’s young conductors – with or without a good education, and some with dubious diplomas! – immediately stand at the conductor’s desk and this does not always lead to good results, especially now, in today’s Bulgaria, where the criteria have decreased, there is a lack of good conductors, and the poor financial conditions and delegated budgets have their say. During the time of Asen Naydenov and his colleagues of the era / Todor Hadzhiev, Asen Dimitrov, Atanas Margaritov and many others/, young conductors were first accompanists, choirmasters, conductor-rehearsers, trainees, but not stage directors. Therefore, even though he had a German school and talent and a diploma, Asen Naydenov waited for 8 years /!/ until he received a solo production / comparatively Donizetti’s chamber opera “Pasquale”, and after that “Werther” by Massenet. During these years, he was only an assistant, gaining experience, taking over productions already staged by other, more senior conductors.
Gradually, for Asen Naydenov, the Sofia Opera became not a second home, but a temple where he performed his musical ritual every day. His connection with the Sofia Opera is so strong, karmic, that his name and the name of the institute were simply inseparable for decades. “Asen Naydenov breathed with the singers and with unprecedented dexterity and flexibility, he brought them peace, an opportunity for full creative expression, without violating his concept. His conductor’s composure and dexterity, his reflexes and flexibility are proverbial” – shared director Mikhail Hadjimishev, another great and well-deserved builder of our national music scene.
His merits for Bulgarian opera creativity are indisputable. He was a true patriot, he loved his homeland. With his help, a number of Bulgarian operas and ballets were born on the stage in our capital, such as: “Nestinarka”, “Tsar Kaloyan”, “Momchil”, “The Nine Brothers of Yanin”, “Crazy Gidiya”, “Dragon and Yana”, “Women’s Kingdom”. Later they became classics. He is also our first interpreter of Wagner, Beethoven’s “Fidelio”, a number of operas by Verdi, Puccini, Saint-Saëns, Goldmark, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky…
It is interesting that in 1961 the People’s Artist and laureate of the Dimitrov Prize Asen Naydenov was…retired from the Opera. This, unfortunately, did not cause at least one public debate, and even in those times it was almost impossible. But the subsequent invitation to permanent work in Leningrad / St. Petersburg, where on the stage of the Mali Opera and Ballet Theater he staged “Othello”, “Rigoletto”, “Turandot”, “The Flying Dutchman” and for three seasons was the chief conductor, gave a new boost to his career. I think that if Asen Naydenov was a musician from a large, Western European country, he would surely be a world name. Because his conducting qualities were of the highest order. Here is a very accurate assessment of them by the composer and conductor Academician Vasil Kazandzhiev: “First of all, it is the exceptional harmony of the interpreter-creator. Under the leadership of Asen Naydenov, the performance “breathes”, lives and pulsates in the smallest details, with an impressive monolithic of the general idea. Conductor Asen Naydenov is characterized by a rigorously calculated and invariably achieved completeness of the performance, subject to an inexorable logic, an extremely clear concept and a sense for a slender architectonic construction of the form. There is only the pursuit of fidelity and honesty to the performed author, the captivating simplicity, sincerity of expression and subtle nuance”.
After the success in St. Petersburg, comes an invitation from the Bolshoi. Asen Naydenov first conducted “The Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovsky, set to music by the famous Yevgeny Svetlanov. The prima donna of the Sofia Opera, known as art. Julia Viner reported that the success of our maestro was so great that his interpretation was so highly appreciated that after his tour the titular Evgeniy Svetlanov refused to conduct this score anymore.
During these “Soviet or Russian years” maestro Naydenov was “carried in his arms” in Moscow. The new hall of the Congress of Soviets was opened by him with the premiere of “Don Carlos”. This opera, which he staged for the first time in Sofia in 1936 together with the great director Prof. Dragan Kurdzhiev, will be one of his favorite titles. He will stage it several more times, he will conduct it for more than 30 years with our and foreign singers, in Sofia, in Varna, Ruse, and other musical ensembles in the country, and on foreign stages. Asen Naydenov’s tours abroad were relatively few. He worked for his favorite stage, the Sofia stage, for Bulgaria, for the Bulgarian audience and singers. Several generations of Bulgarian artists grew up and established themselves under his wing. It is impossible to list them all – they are not dozens, but hundreds. People’s artist Asen Naydenov was a workaholic and a true perfectionist. It is enough to listen now to one of his recordings / not only the studio ones, but also the documentary ones!/, stored in the Golden Fund of the Radio, to make sure of his high class. And in the immense merits of this great and dedicated musician and builder.
Of those that are now rarer and rarer…
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