Emil Tabakov: Complete Symphonies, Volume Four
The music of the Bulgarian composer-conductor Emil Tabakov (b. 1947) explores the darker side of the human spirit in epic scores as austere as they are powerful. His mighty Fifth Symphony, a work almost an hour in length, is obsessive and violent, with the two outer movements, wild kaleidoscopes of whirling colours and driving energy, framing a tragic slow movement and a sardonic march. The much earlier Double-Bass Concerto, which sits downstream from Shostakovich, shows the same grim sense of humour in the teeth of the dancing indifference of fate.
Entcho Radoukanov, double bass Tracks 1 – 3
Symphony Orchestra of Bulgarian National Radio
Emil Tabakov, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
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Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra (1975)
- I Allegro
- II Lento
- III Vivace
- Spirituoso
- Largo
- III Allegro moderato
- IV Finale: Andante
Symphony No. 5 (2000)
FIRST RECORDINGS
MusicWeb International :
[The Double Bass Concerto] has ruthless and colourful kinetic ways. You will likely find this work appealing if you subscribe to the cello concertos by Shostakovich and Kabalevsky. The recording is stunningly good and is a good gauge of music that seethes with conflict and victory. It’s all carefully coloured and balanced.’
—Robert Barnett, MusicWeb International
Fanfare :
‘Tabakov’s Fifth stands in the same lineage as the epic-scale symphonies of the Soviet era: Shostakovich’s Fourth and Seventh, Khachaturian’s Second, Schnittke’s First. Besides scope, Tabakov’s shares the same edginess and wry humor, and contains more than a touch of the black-as-night bleakness of his predecessors […] A very satisfying disc showcases the talents of a composer-conductor whose output is worthy of exploration. This is the fourth in a series of Tabakov’s recordings of his own symphonies—check it out!’
—Fanfare
Gramophone :
‘The performance [of the Double Bass Concerto] by Entcho Radoukanov is splendidly vivid, and the studio recording from 1982 is very fine. Altogether a worth addition to the 20th-century double bass repertoire […] The Fifth Symphony is a somewhat thornier prospect […] There’s no doubting, however, the commitment of the orchestral playing under Tabakov in this 2011 recording.’
—Gramophone