My creative journey over the years has repeatedly intersected with that of our new guest in Brass Stories. Composer Stefan Dragostinov has been one of the most colorful figures in Bulgarian musical culture over the past 3 to 4 decades. He is the author of a piano concerto, a concerto for the exotic instrument bass clarinet, dozens of chamber works, solo sonatas for violin, viola, cello, double bass, clarinet, and French horn, as well as choral compositions for his ensemble Dragostin Folk National. Some time ago, he shared, “The interest in the trombone is a process of musical aesthetic development, starting from the moment when Beethoven first used trombones in the fourth movement of the Fifth Symphony. This long development spans 150 years – especially the last 100, with 50 of them after the Second World War. It passes through Boulez, Stockhausen, and the masters of the last decade, indicating that the interest in the contemporary, refined instrument is indeed heightened. The Bulgarian composer owes a great deal to this development of the modern instrument. It’s all about the attitude of the performer, who has mastered one’s instrument, and the composer’s knowledge.”

In 2023, Dragostinov celebrated his 75^th birthday – a lifetime filled with rich and genre-diverse creativity, with innovative explorations, with love for Bulgarian music, and especially for Bulgarian folklore. In this jubilee year, the composer completed his Concerto for Trombone and Symphony Orchestra. I had the honor of premiering this concerto on November 17, 2023, at the Bulgaria Hall with the Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio under the baton of Simeon Pironkov. This concerto is the third in the catalog of Bulgarian trombone concertos, following the two by Philip Pavlov and the Romantic Concerto for Trombone by Dimitar Sagaev, not to mention Milko Kolarov’s Concerto for Bass Trombone and the forgotten, unfortunately, with an unknown fate, concertos of the great Bulgarian trombonist and trombone pedagogue Petar Popov (1947-1995).

The creation of Concerto Grande per Trombone e orchestra has a long and interesting history. In 2007, the composer wrote the piece “Maqam and Yurush” for trombone and chamber ensemble, performed for the first time again by me with the Musica Nova ensemble under the direction of Dragomir Yosifov for the participation of the ensemble in the Yourope Together festival. The premiere took place in the chamber hall of the Philharmonic in Essen, Germany. Our collaboration dates back to then. Again in 2007, I asked the composer if there was interest in the trombone – an instrument that emerged in antiquity and has undergone many transformations – in the new millennium. “There is interest,” he said. “And it is dictated primarily by contemporary aesthetic categories. I always look into space and time – how to solve these problems in a musical work, what the possibilities of this instrument are. But perhaps most important here is the friendship between the creator and the performer.”

An interesting aspect at the heart of the future Concerto Grande per Trombone e is its first part, “Maqam” (Moderato Assai): “Here, specific sound structures characteristic of Arabic music and the Orient are used, which penetrated into Bulgarian musical tradition centuries ago. The word ‘maqam’ in Arabic has over 20 meanings. Besides melody, ‘maqam’ is a vast territory of cultures, stretching from West Africa and Southwest Asia to the boundary of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. In this concept, I primarily see a unity of cultural layers that conceal ancient secrets in their diversity. In the letter construction of ‘maqam’ I see colossal energy, as the word – read forwards and backwards – is the same.” And he continues, “I was searching for what should sound after the cosmic creative tension of the first part of ‘Maqam’. That’s when the idea came to me to name the second part “Yurush” (Poco Allegretto) – a swift burst of sound carrying deliberate, constructive energy within it, like a unique vector in forward and upward direction.”

Years later, Dragostinov added a third part to the piece “Maqam and Yurush”, which he called “Cosmic Marathon” (Quazi Senza Tempo) and described as “a diverse sound palette, in which – in the permanent headlong dialogue between the orchestra and the soloist – optimism dominates.” By expanding the orchestration to a large symphony orchestra, Dragostinov created Concerto Grande per Trombone, as the most important reason for composers’ interest in the instrument undoubtedly lies in the performer-composer relationship.

Dragostinov is one of those composers who thoroughly explore the instrument before creating music for it, in close contact with the performer, trying to get one to “extract” something from the instrument that no other composer has thought to write, “But writing contemporary music should not be an end in itself.”

From my side, I admit that I am grateful to every composer who decides to try out the trombone. Bulgarian music must be an important part of the repertoire of every Bulgarian musician. Every time I have played Bulgarian music abroad, I have always gained the admiration of colleagues and the audience for our music, which is emotional, professionally written, substantive, and with a clear meaning. Eccentric in its expressive means, Stefan Dragostinov values the beauty and possibilities of the instrument, “With the trombone, there are two endlessly beautiful things: the powerful instrument and the incredibly delicate instrument. The trombone has the qualities of a tender caress.”

Perhaps my biggest provocation to the composer was to tell him that in the new music, the performer should be a ‘co-author’ and he was truly provoked. “I really like the word ‘co-author’ because it implies relationships. We can accept that the other thesis may be true – the composer as a ‘co-performer,’ as a person who knows the possibilities in detail, even if one cannot play the instrument.”

Stefan Dragostinov is the first composer I met, who wanted to learn everything about the instrument – its origin, varieties, technical possibilities, effects, innovations, everything! When writing the concerto, he observed all elements, and there was nothing that could not be played. Because, “When embarking on one’s future program, the composer must know what is important to know. I know that pedal tones require tremendous tension, a huge amount of air, that the performer cannot hold there for long. But I also know that when the pedal tone is the basis for a low tone in another instrument, the effect is colossal. All this knowledge came in my relationships with performers. That’s how I came to the discovery of the glissandi in “Maqam and Yurush” – something that doesn’t exist in any other work.”

Stefan Dragostinov’s Concerto Grande per Trombone e orchestra is original, virtuosic, overly expansive, and slightly exaggerated in length. I shared with the composer my desire to shorten it, and he thought and said, “I can write you a whole other part!”
That’s what Stefan Dragostinov is like!

This interview is available in Bulgarian and in Dutch

The BRASS STORIES Project is supported by the
National Culture Fund of the Republic of Bulgaria