/ world today news/ She is young, energetic, speaks with a slight slur – as if she lived for many years in Italy. And it is not at all surprising that after the concert with the music of the Bach family these days in Sofia, intelligent people admitted to each other that until now they thought of the harpsichord and the harpsichord as different musical instruments. He smiles apologetically and says that this happens often in other civilized countries.
The violinist Zefira Valova has a very respectable professional career for her age. With concerts in all corners of the world, prestigious awards and world-renowned teachers.
She is the inspirer, organizer and one of the performers of the already famous in our country “The Art of the Baroque” festival.
Here is what she herself told BGNES:
Baroque music takes us back to other times, it is not for nothing that they call it music for kings. In our busy time, there is too much unnecessary noise surrounding us. Even the noise of unnecessary conversations, electronic sounds… And we don’t hear the voices of nature. While the works written in the Baroque era are closely related precisely to the sounds of nature and pure emotions. For example, in the works of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, the son of Johann Sebastian Bach, which we heard recently at the concert in Sofia “Masterpieces of the Bach Family”, the performers literally infected the audience with the harmony of the author’s intention.
In Bulgaria, among the baroque composers of the first half of the 18th century, three are mostly known – Bach, Handel and Vivaldi. Two Germans and one Italian, however, all wrote their works in the familiar Italian style. They were indeed popular for their time, highly regarded, but not considered to have achieved the greatest success. Such is Georg Philipp Telemann, who managed to feed his family of 18 children only by publishing his works. This was unheard of and unheard of for that era.
My goal with holding the “Baroque Art” festival in Bulgaria, which takes place every year in October and November and will be held for the 9th time, is not only to present new works and authors such as Bieber, Zelenka, Jean Philippe Rameau. But also to introduce the public to new instruments that are more difficult to find in our country.
It is normal that there are more and more people who understand the riches that the music of the Baroque era can bring us – above all with the emotional delight. Classical music is not part of mass culture in Bulgaria. This is a watershed that is also noticeable in Western Europe – an idealized dream of a part of the world where many Bulgarians are heading.
There are differences – in the Netherlands, for example, our audience is people over 65 years of age, but here it is not like that. In Bulgaria, we have many admirers and too many initiatives with classical music for children, even for babies and pregnant women, for students… It cannot be said that this music is far from our everyday life. On the contrary. But it can be closer. For this to happen, everyone must find the meaning of this kind of communication. It is obvious that the emotions expressed by the performers are pure, real-time, in a language that is more than universal. It is not necessary to sing an aria with words in Italian or German for the listener to understand that this part of the work is about mental suffering, anguish and sadness.
The codes are infinitely clear – minor, major key, fast or slow part. Children understand and absorb such music. I think that the childishness that adults keep to themselves and the naïve sensibility inherent in many is a good basis for preserving interest or its awakening. Personally, that’s how I started playing baroque repertoire.
I am a classical musician, with a traditional education received in Bulgaria. But at one point I asked myself if this is really the way I want to touch the hearts of the audience. And I tried to look for my own handwriting, and it was the baroque repertoire, where there is a lot of improvisational element, as well as undiscovered, unperformed works until today, that inspired me.
I found that just as I felt when I performed them, I could make the listener experience a similar feeling, even more pleasure.
I tried to popularize the “Baroque Art” festival also among Bulgarians who do not live in our country. Not only among those who have awareness of this solid branch of music, but also among the performers themselves. I invite them to return to our country to make their debut on their native stage, because after leaving the country they did not have a podium to show what they have learned. Among them are already Linda Mancheva, Zhivka Kalcheva and others who are on the list of guests of the festival in the future. I also invite guests from abroad to the concerts, but most often Aapo Hakkinen from Finland.
At the opening this autumn of the next edition of the festival, the EU Baroque Orchestra will play with conductor Lars Ulrik Mortensen, and at the end there will be a concert performance of Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro” – an unheard of event for us. Because instruments from that era will be played and voices will be heard in accordance with the vocal practice of that time. /BGNES
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The violinist Zefira Valova studied with Prof. Ifra Niiman, Petru Munteanu, Kevork Mardirosyan, Mincho Minchev, and baroque music in the city of Blankenburg /Germany/, where she was the winner of the award named after Idel Friedrich Thom. She gained experience in Bulgaria, Germany, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands. Winner of many national and international awards. Since 2007, he initiated the holding of the first annual festival of its kind in Bulgaria “The Art of Baroque”.
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