Uploaded December 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
- Composer: Andrey Stoyanov (23 March 1890 -- 29 September 1969)
- Performer: Rujka Charakchieva
- Year of recording: 2012 (?)
Sonatina for Piano / Sonatina Concertante, written around 1955.
00:00 - I. Allegretto
04:16 - II. Andante sostenuto
07:29 - III. Allegretto giocoso
Bulgarian composer Andrey Stoyanov was the brother to the perhaps more famous Vesselin Stoyanov. He was among the founding members of the Contemporary Music Society (which later became the Union of Bulgarian Composers in 1933). He graduated from the Robert College in Instanbul majoring in piano with Sikac. From 1910 to 1914 he studied piano with Prohazka and music theory with Gredner and Mandichevski at the Music Academy in Vienna. Upon his return to Bulgaria, he taught at the State Music School and from 1922 to 1958 he was Professor at the State Academy of Music in Sofia. In 1950 Stoyanov was elected Chairman of the Piano Department - he is considered one of the founders of the Bulgarian piano school. In 1953 he became Head of the Music Pedagogy Department of the Institute of Music at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He composed piano music; a few chamber works; solo and choral songs.
This piano sonatina is among the relatively more often played pieces by Stoyanov, there is clearly inspiration from the rich Bulgarian folk music present and it is certainly playable by an amateur pianist.
- The first movement features a bittersweet melody in the theme,
- the second movement sounds like a slow lament, and almost sounds like something that could have been written by Rachmaninov.
- The uplifting third movement is really Bulgarian sounding, especially because of the 7/16 meter which is as common in Bulgarian music as for example the 3/4 meter is in Western music.
Nowadays there is a "Andrei Stoyanov Community and Music Center" and a "Andrei Stoyanov - International Piano competition" in Sofia, Bulgaria, so at least in his homeland he is not forgotten.
- Composer: Andrey Stoyanov (23 March 1890 -- 29 September 1969)
- Performer: Rujka Charakchieva
- Year of recording: 2012 (?)
Sonatina for Piano / Sonatina Concertante, written around 1955.
00:00 - I. Allegretto
04:16 - II. Andante sostenuto
07:29 - III. Allegretto giocoso
Bulgarian composer Andrey Stoyanov was the brother to the perhaps more famous Vesselin Stoyanov. He was among the founding members of the Contemporary Music Society (which later became the Union of Bulgarian Composers in 1933). He graduated from the Robert College in Instanbul majoring in piano with Sikac. From 1910 to 1914 he studied piano with Prohazka and music theory with Gredner and Mandichevski at the Music Academy in Vienna. Upon his return to Bulgaria, he taught at the State Music School and from 1922 to 1958 he was Professor at the State Academy of Music in Sofia. In 1950 Stoyanov was elected Chairman of the Piano Department - he is considered one of the founders of the Bulgarian piano school. In 1953 he became Head of the Music Pedagogy Department of the Institute of Music at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He composed piano music; a few chamber works; solo and choral songs.
This piano sonatina is among the relatively more often played pieces by Stoyanov, there is clearly inspiration from the rich Bulgarian folk music present and it is certainly playable by an amateur pianist.
- The first movement features a bittersweet melody in the theme,
- the second movement sounds like a slow lament, and almost sounds like something that could have been written by Rachmaninov.
- The uplifting third movement is really Bulgarian sounding, especially because of the 7/16 meter which is as common in Bulgarian music as for example the 3/4 meter is in Western music.
Nowadays there is a "Andrei Stoyanov Community and Music Center" and a "Andrei Stoyanov - International Piano competition" in Sofia, Bulgaria, so at least in his homeland he is not forgotten.


![Juliusz Zarębski - Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 34
- Composer: Juliusz Zarębski (3 March 1854 15 September 1885)
- Performers: Waldemar Malicki (piano), Amar Corde String Quartet
- Year of recording: 1997
Quintet for Piano & Strings in G minor, Op. 34, written in 1885.
00:00 - I. Allegro
10:03 - II. Adagio
20:51 - III. Scherzo
26:41 - IV. Finale
In 1935, at the peak of the neoclassical period, the Piano Quintet in G minor Op. 34 by Polish composer-pianist Juliusz Zarębski was published. The Quintet was written at the beginning of 1885, during the period of convalescence of the composer (who suffered from tuberculosis) in his home town of Żytomierz. The Quintet was the last and the most outstanding masterpiece written by Zarębski, who died in September of this same year at the age of 31. Zarębski was a member of the 19th century guild of composers and virtuosos. Extremely talented, he studied piano and composition in Vienna and St. Petersburg. He composed mainly salon and virtuoso music for the needs of his numerous tournées; the most famous collection is called Roses and thorns (Róże i ciernie).
The great talent of Zarębski is reflected in the opinions of Franz Liszt, who had seen in him not only the great virtuoso (sharing the interest in a two-keyboard piano with the maestro from Weimar), but also a deeply sensitive composer. Liszt insisted that Zarębski should seriously devote himself to composing. It is therefore hardly surprising that the Quintet was dedicated to Liszt [À mon cher maître Fr. Liszt]. There are however clear musical reasons for this dedication. The Quintet emerges from the tradition of the New German School, whose outstanding figures were Liszt and Wagner. The origins of the work manifest itself in the richness of colour and harmony and also in treating the themes as if they were characters in a novel. That is why, instead of a classical motif work, we hear the metamorphosis of the characters, themes return in the subsequent parts, and the finale is the culmination in the synthetic style. It is not the form that captures our attention but the twists and turns of the narration. However, it must be added that the novel plays out in a highly abstract register. Therefore, it appears inappropriate to search for a concrete programme. After all, Liszt and Wagner did not write chamber music for a reason. The originality of this Polish chamber music masterpiece lies in the amicably incompatible combination of classical and Late Romantic traditions. But the beauty of the Quintet lies mostly in the music.
- Allegro: Against the backdrop of murmuring waves of the piano, the strings sail in a broad unison, the theme in turn rolling but serious, and diatonic and broken in a chromatic prism. The second theme in E flat major balances this initial appassionato with a nocturne section: quite light, fanciful and twinkling. The march rhythms play an important role in this part. They are only a seasoning, they never crystallize into an independent theme. However, they give the piece intransigent, maybe even (especially with the connection with falling chromatic bass) fatal character. The particular feature is a gypsy C sharp. It appears in the theme; it causes an amazing journey into C-sharp minor in the second section of the development (ended with a solo, longing cello recitative); it is on show in the daring coda.
- The second movement Adagio, begins and ends with bizarre music which suggests some kind of picture or landscape: maybe a starlight shimmering on dark waters? The foundation of Adagio is the lied (art song). The outermost parts have a hymnic character in B flat major; the middle section in G major can be described as idyllic, in accordance with the symbolic tradition of this key and the connotations of a 12/8 meter. However, Zarębski introduces a shadow, especially in the form of chromatics, which in turn gives an edge of surrealism to this idyll.
- Truly diabolic is the Scherzo. Presto: full of frictions, dissonance, sudden changes, contrary accents and unnatural scales (a comeback of the gypsy Allegro note). Even the diatonic fragments, as a result of freezing the harmonic centre, create an impression of wildness. Quasi-folk melodies appear too (and they seem to be Russian: a kamarinskaya dance).
- The Finale. Presto begins with an epigraph taken from the previous movement, after which a cleansing calmness prevails. Further on, the music flows colourfully and capriciously, expressed in a rhapsodic sonata form. The first theme again resounds with a bawdy dance note, with a highly stylized (and therefore difficult to identify) character. The themes from the first and second movement return. The piece is crowned by a glorification of the Quintet first parts main theme.
Fortunately, this piano quintet is now slowly starting to be played at concerts and rightfully so, because this masterpiece deserves a place among the biggest Romantic Piano Quintets. Juliusz Zarębski - Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 34](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ctkgy0ZFXnU/mqdefault.jpg)







