A tribute to Nino Ninov and “national pride” in Plovdiv (1978–1979)

After Lyuba Lipova’s review of the East German tour, the singers and their families met on 23 December 1978 for the first social evening in many years. After New Year rehearsals went back up to three a week, and Vasil Kazandzhiev refreshed the oratorio “April 1876” with the choir ahead of its recording.

On 1 February 1979 the choir marked, in its own way, the 50th birthday of its long-serving former chairman Nino Ninov. The address, written and read by the chorister Stoyan Boychev, recalled the first prizes in Gorizia (1972), Varna (1975) and above all Cork (1976), and invited him to “drop in on us as a friend and welcome guest”. At the celebration Emil Yanev gave away what Chonev had modestly kept to himself: he had been made an associate professor (docent) at the Plovdiv Conservatory. The mood was spoiled by an old problem – some of the best voices wanted to sing in the opera chorus for a fee as well; the board held firm, and those who insisted, among them Dimka Dyulgerova, left Morski Zvutsi.

On 21 February the choir sang at “New Bulgarian Music ’79” in the Bulgaria Hall, and over the next two days it recorded “April 1876” for Bulgarian National Radio with Kazandzhiev. On 12 March Prof. Georgi Dimitrov died, a man whose fatherly care the choir never forgot; Chonev and Iliya Torbarov hurried to Sofia for the funeral, and a planned get-together with the Hadzhiyski choir from Targovishte was postponed.

For the final stage of the festival the pieces were still not ready, and the singers could not take ten days off work. From 10 April double rehearsals were introduced – mornings for those free, evenings for everyone – and on 6 May Varna’s finalists sang in a joint concert before an audience. On 14 May the choir set off for Plovdiv and on 15 May 1979 performed in the Party House “very well”, as the author modestly puts it.

A jury member, the composer Assoc. Prof. Aleksandar Tanev, wrote an article for Narodno Delo headed “National Pride”. He said he had not met such a standard even at international competitions, and named Morski Zvutsi among the ensembles that set the upper limit: a huge dynamic range, pure intonation, ensemble brought to perfection – a choir that “breathes, makes music and interprets as one single string”. He saw the choir’s achievements as those of Marin Chonev, praised his gesture – “precise, clear and commanding” – and the pianist Petar Vitanov, and concluded that the choir had been in the front rank for 23 years and was “a national cultural treasure”.

Straight after Plovdiv the choir sang in its rehearsal hall for the jury of the 12th May Choral Competition and hosted a Japanese mixed choir – a young ensemble (average age 26) that had just won second prize in the competition. On 20 May the two choirs exchanged programmes, the Japanese including some serious Bulgarian pieces.