The chamber choir festival in Rostock (July–October 1981)

On 25 June 1981 Chonev reported an invitation from Rostock (East Germany) to the Festival of Chamber Choirs in October, for a group of 35; it turned out that the letter sent earlier to the City People’s Council had never been passed on to the choir. With the choir just reduced, Chonev asked whether they would accept 55. Almost at the same time came an invitation to visit Greece as a cultural exchange delegation; the municipality suggested September, but because of Rostock and the anniversary concert moved to the autumn, the choir proposed November. The choir worked all summer without a break. The District Council for Culture refused money for Rostock but put a visit by the Varna Boys’ and Youth Choir to Idar-Oberstein into its plan for 1982.

On 22 July an invitation arrived for a full concert at the Panorama of Bulgarian Choral Performance on 20 February 1982, dedicated to Bulgaria’s 1300th anniversary and the centenary of Georgi Dimitrov’s birth. At the end of July Gerhard Faatz cabled from Rostock that they could take 55. A letter also came from Larissa, Greece, inviting Chonev to attend the choral competition there and discuss an exchange of men’s choirs – it went unanswered, since the choir would be visiting Greece anyway. Meanwhile absences multiplied and the soprano section was overfull, and Chonev considered releasing more singers.

On 27 August Dora Yaneva agreed to take over Korbakov’s former post, with Stoyan Boychev keeping the finances; she was officially appointed only around mid-1982. The Rostock group was to be led by Chonev on behalf of the City Council for Culture, and Rositsa Yordanova of that council was also put on the list; the two group passports were in the charge of Iliya Torbarov and Kosta Levkov, and Ivanka Hristova was to secure the money. Petar Vitanov’s proposal to try out the programme on stage before departure came to nothing. After meeting the mayor of Varna’s twin city Piraeus, Chonev reported that the visit there was agreed for 19–27 November, by two coaches. But the paperwork dragged: the forms lay unsubmitted at the Interior Ministry until mid-October, and the festival began on the 23rd. In the meantime, on 11 October, the choir sang in the Palace of Culture and Sports for the 10th jubilee day “The Strength and Beauty of Bulgaria”.

The plane tickets to Berlin were bought on 18 October and departure was moved to the 21st; the travel money was taken from the choir’s grant for the fourth quarter and was repaid only a month after its return, after a great deal of trouble. After changing planes in Sofia, the group landed at 12.30 at Schönefeld airport, where Frau Gisela met them, and travelled on by train to Rostock. The choir was housed in a training boarding school for the East German fishing fleet on the edge of town and ate at the distant Kosmos restaurant, losing much time on the way. Even so, on 23 October the singers performed more than well at the festival’s opening concert, in whose first half the host choir of the Neptun shipyard also sang. Leaders and musicians alike praised the performance as brilliant, and the repertoire of difficult contemporary pieces by talented Bulgarian composers made a strong impression.

On 24 October choirs from Jena, Dresden and other cities sang in two concerts, and in the evening all the ensembles met at a ball, where Chonev made contacts with conductors and organisers. The closing concert on 25 October at the House of the Army consisted of lighter pieces sung in unusual conditions, and the day’s second concert, at a sanatorium on the Baltic coast – before fewer listeners than singers, with songs announced only in German – fell short because of accumulated fatigue. Early on 26 October the choir flew home; a delayed flight broke the connection in Sofia, and in the end the last city buses carried the singers from Varna airport into town.