After Cork: the Varna Prize and the Sofia concert (1976–1977)

The choir was back just in time for the close of the May Choral Festival: on 16 May 1976 it sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Varna Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under Emil Glavanakov, Honoured Artist, with soloists Maria Bohachek, Neli Bozhkova, Todor Kostov and Stefan Mihaylov – in the author’s view the best performance of the symphony the choir ever gave on a Varna stage. Prof. Venelin Krastev wrote that Morski Zvutsi had long since earned the standing of an “elite representative” choir and that a few technical slips in the very difficult choral part, in the worst possible acoustics, did not stop one appreciating its mastery.

Interest in the choir was high, and despite their fatigue the singers took part on 20 May in the gala concert for the Day of Bulgarian Culture and in the festive procession, where the three cups were carried at the head of the column. Concerts followed on 25 and 27 May after pre-election meetings (for the candidacies of Lyudmila Zhivkova and Todor Stoychev). On 31 May Chonev analysed the Cork performance, Mimi Dimitrova read her travelogue of the 1975 Italian tour, the films made by Nikolay Gyurov and Asen Nikolov were shown, and Lyuba Lipova read her travelogue of Cork. A message of congratulations from Todor Stoychev, first secretary of the district party committee, was read out, and the choir and its conductor received the Varna Prize for the highest achievements in choral art in 1975–1976 (Narodno Delo, 4 June 1976). The season ended on 26 June.

After a break until 23 August the choir revived its programme for the 9 September concert (7 September, Drama Theatre). An invitation came to the international choral competition in The Hague, Netherlands, but the board replied that the choir could only come as a guest on an exchange basis, since the Central House of Folk Art had planned for other Bulgarian choirs to go; The Hague declined and invited the choir for 1979. An enquiry about an exchange visit to Greece never received an answer. The choir honoured the long service of Arsen Torosyan, one of the few remaining founders, on his leaving the ensemble, and on 18 November said goodbye to Yordanka Shishkova, who had run the sight-singing training during the years of the choir’s great rise; her place was taken by Yanka Mitseva, now as a conductor of the choir. On 19 November 1976 the choir sang in Provadia for the 80th anniversary of the local party organisation.

For the concert in Sofia on 22 January 1977 Chonev tried separate rehearsals for the women’s, men’s and mixed choirs, but lateness and absences grew, and he went back to three two-hour rehearsals a week. The soloist in Petko Mechkov’s “Coming of Age” was Ranko Dyulgerov, who admitted he was taken aback when the choir came in with the refrain. At the Panorama of Bulgarian Choral Art in the Bulgaria Hall, Morski Zvutsi – unlike the other choirs – sang to a full house; Varna television shot a 30-minute film and the radio broadcast four programmes. Chonev himself had reservations about the specialists’ glowing assessment. Attempts to record at Radio Sofia failed because the tired singers kept going flat, and in Varna, which still had no hall suitable for recording, sessions on 10 and 17 February at the House of Amateur Art produced only Mutafchiev’s “Echo” and Tchaikovsky’s “Blessed is he whom Thou hast chosen” before recording was again halted for technical reasons.