Symphony Orchestra Of Bulgarian National Radio by Khachaturian, A., Konyus, Y., Shostakovich, Ó (2024/2024), Seoltóir Georgi Dimitrov, Festival and Congress Center, Varna, Bulgaria

At the end of the long summer with fall on its way, at the most beautiful of times, comes the closing concert of the festival. It is in the hands of the outstanding conductor Georgi Dimitrov, who is soon to turn 80 and that fact brings only values and assets to his work. He’s been impressively collaborating recently with the Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio – an orchestra that comes regularly to “Varna Summer” with carefully chosen and sophisticated programs. This concert is not an exception – maestro Dimitrov chose to open the evening with the beautiful (and often used in movies) Adagio from Khachaturian’s ballet “Spartacus” – it will trace the way to the enormously deep Ninth Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich that is being so powerfully conducted by Dimitrov that each time it leaves the audience breathless. On the way, there is another quite intriguing piece – Julius Conus’s violin concerto that often tempted Fritz Kreisler himself to perform it. In Varna, it will be the virtuoso Mario Hossen to present it to the listeners.