"Saint Dobrin - the orchestrator's soul" - this is the nickname by which the founders of the symphony orchestra in Ruse call each other after 12-14-hour rehearsals the conductor Dobrin Petkov.
Other playful remarks among the orchestra members are remembered - "Conductors are our class enemies!".
And a telling account of a rehearsal of the overture to The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini. Dobrin Petkov "didn't like something about the risers and turned them back 15 times. The flautist Assen Tsankov couldn't stand it, jumped up and said: 'Comrade Petkov, you are a young man and you are giving us complexes. You will drive us mad. Everything you are doing is a genocide against us and it is an impact on our health.
you won't have an orchestra in a few years if you keep this up
Think about it for a bit and do something," and sat down. Silence for ten seconds, and Dobrin said, "Please, please, from the same place." Asen stood up and said, "That's why we love you."
In the early 1950s, when the musical institutions in Ruse were formed, the orchestra was composed of amateur musicians. Conductor Dobrin Petkov's classmate from the Second National State Men's High School Konstantin Odzhakov, a direct descendant of an old Renaissance family, tells of the difficulties of setting up the orchestra.
"The original composition of the orchestra was very heterogeneous. People with special musical training were few.
Musicians came from the military brass bands and from the salon orchestras that served the public establishments at that time. The number of amateurs who had studied a musical instrument with great love during their school years, but had then turned to another profession, was considerable. Pupils who had just completed their high school education also entered. Something was needed to unite these enthusiasts, so that they could set out together on the difficult path to the great goal... They were united by a strong love for music, united most spontaneously by the creative adoration of the conductors Emil Karamanov, Konstantin Iliev, Dobrin Petkov.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that thanks to them the Ruse Symphony Orchestra went through a real conservatory.
An outstanding violinist himself, Dobrin Petkov worked with each of the orchestra members, teaching them free private lessons - Mikhail Chakarov remembers with respect.
"One quality of his amazed me every time I attended his concerts. He was able to go into ecstasy experiencing ecstatic peak moments and at the same time remain sober and through his ratio control the smallest components of the performance. Amazing how he combined these two incompatible things!"
Valentin Popov adds that the conductor's father, the great violin teacher Prof. Hristo Petkov.
"I remember with gratitude his gratuitous lessons, the advice and exercise books of music he wrote by hand that he provided me."
The Ruse-born acad. Vasil Kazandjiev:
"These two young men (Konstantin Iliev and Dobrin Petkov) arriving in Ruse, formed an orchestra of so-called cabinet lawyers, engineers, dentists and doctors.
Then, after 9/11, the early years had people fired for some "dark stuff" in their backgrounds. Without having graduated from a music academy, without being professionals, they had taken a few violin, flute and cello lessons and working with them often consisted of purely pedagogical requirements. People would come to Dobrin's house with their fiddles and bellows, and he would work out every finger, every vibrato, every bow part, etc., as if to play a concert recital...".
During the filming of the documentary "Shostakovich's Piano" the team recorded the experiences of those who had the unique chance to personally touch the talent of the musician, the conductor's baton.
"Dobrin and I worked with precision. And at one rehearsal they handed out the notes of some Shostakovich symphony - which number it was I don't remember - and Dobrin stood at the console and raised his hands. The wind players on the front line (the wooden instruments) don't react. Dobrin says - "Please, colleagues - hold hands and again - "Please, colleagues - again refusal. I shudder and think - What's going to happen now?
Polite but insistent, the conductor waits patiently
maybe five or six minutes have passed. And at one point the blowers stand up and say, "We don't play that kind of shit." And Dobrin insists again, "Please, colleagues!" And he made them sit down and start playing. The colleagues couldn't immediately accept the new classics, these dissonances, these thirds, this new sound. That's how it was with Dobrin - instructions, exhausting five-hour rehearsals from 9 am to 2 pm, but magical music was produced. I still prefer the new classics," says Pepa Atanasova.
Petar Spasov has preserved a memory of the vivid contact with the personality of the man and musician Dobrin Petkov and the meeting with Dmitry Shostakovich. "My colleagues and I were looking forward to the day when we would rehearse the piano concerto with the soloists, and not with anyone but with Shostakovich himself. The day came. The rehearsal was scheduled, the thrill level was high,
Dobrin Petkov is a conductor, he introduces Shostakovich.
Orchestra on their feet, applause continuous!
Then Shostakovich greeted the orchestra with warm, welcoming words. While this lasts I look at Shostakovich's face, at his smile, a very characteristic, specific smile, and I perceive something - his eyes and face lit up in some kind of light. The concert was really a kind of apogee! There was no surprise in that, as Dobrin Petkov was at the conductor's podium. Everybody knows what that means. The audience on its feet in ecstasy. There was a bow in the air to the greatness of the spirit! The feeling is one of endless celebration. It felt like a tidal wave of joy had enveloped both orchestra and audience. At one point Shostakovich turns to Dobrin, and suddenly there is silence in the hall. With barely restrained tears, (I can see his emotion) he said in a moving voice, "Conductors like Dobrin Petkov, who have penetrated so deeply into the essence of my work, are counted on the fingers of the world." And for him, meeting the personality of Dobrin Petkov will leave in his mind the memory of something unique and unforgettable."
Mrs. Lilyana Petkova introduces us to the intimate world of close friendship with Dr. Vera Petkova and her husband Dobrin.
"One occasion that was long commented on among the orchestra players was when Dobrin's son was born.
No one was able to stop the rehearsal to tell him the good news.
He had to wait for the break to find out that he had become a dad for the second time, but already to a son. "She remembers how on a visit to Ruse she and her husband, also an orchestrator, sent the conductor's family to the station and at the last moment she slipped a freshly baked pie into Dr Vera Petkova's hands. Hours later, a midnight phone call from Dobrin thanking her for the delicious gift follows.
Asked by Vasil Kazandjiev what his friendship with Dobrin Petkov gave him, the composer replied, "It is an extraordinary friendship. I see Dobrin as both a teacher and his equal. And I know that when he attends a concert of mine, I will then receive the most objective and well-meaning criticism. Dobrin will not forget to point out the positives, but he will not spare the negatives either. And I am eternally grateful to him... And I trust him! Because this is the only way to grow in the profession. It has happened many times that Dobrin has asked me to attend his concert. And together afterwards we discuss how the concert went. This is a spiritual friendship that I value very much."
The Rousse Opera will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Dobrin Petkov's birth with five concerts - three chamber and two large symphonic ones with conductors Vladimir Boshnakov and Emil Tabakov. They will include works that Dobrin Petkov conducted in Ruse.
The first one will be tomorrow, on 31 January, in the Europe Hall of the State Dome. Opera soloists will perform operatic arias and duets with piano accompaniment, which Dobrin Petkov conducted during his stay in Ruse.
With this concert also begin the celebrations, which will include the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and the Plovdiv Opera, and the Plovdiv School of Arts bears his name.
On this occasion, the conductor's son Hristo, born in Ruse, and his grandson Dobrin Petkov will also visit the town.
Author.
