Bulgarian Pianist Makes Impression In Piano Competition

I have a CD of Evgeni Bozhanov playing a range of baroque, classical and early romantic pieces, so I am quite aware of his music talents. So when I heard about this story it didn't suprise me and backs up the fact that Bulgaria has a major stock of gifted musicians of all genres that remain untapped outside their own country.

Evgeni Bozhanov of Bulgaria made a strong showing at the afternoon session of the preliminaries of the Van Cliburn Competition on Monday. His program of Mozart, Chopin and Chopin didn’t contain much composer variety, but who’s to complain when the level of skill and interpretation is exceptionally high? Bozhanov opened with Mozart’s Sonata in D, K. 311. This sparkled with personality. His interpretation of Chopin’s Rondo a la Masur, Opus 5, offered both lyrical charm and an opportunity to hear something by a very famous composer that’s not often performed. There was one cellphone interpolation from the audience, but it was caught instantly and wasn’t much of a spoiler. A fine performance of Chopin’s Sonata No. 3 in B minor reinforced the sense that the judges are going to have a hard time narrowing the semifinal field to 12 pianists. www.kera.org Picture sourced from www.kulturfabrik-ibachhaus.de