The Stabat Mater in Sofia and Varna (1986)

After the rehearsal on 3 March 1986 nine singers were ceremonially presented, in the choir’s hall, with the badge of “Distinguished Worker of the Committee for Culture” – awarded back in 1981 for the choir’s 25th anniversary; some of them had already left. Chonev reminded the choir of its tasks: a concert for the 30th anniversary in April or May, and Stabat Mater with People’s Artist Vasil Stefanov and Czech soloists at Varna Summer and, on 21 June, in Sofia at the Sofia Music Weeks with the Bulgarian Radio and Television Orchestra. The board prepared the annual election meeting: only new names went onto the list for the new board, and it was decided to present gifts to deserving former singers at a spring evening with a short concert – something most singers had not known for a long time. In early April Chonev went to Sofia as a delegate to the 13th Congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party, and attendance fell despite Rositsa Shtereva’s efforts. On 26 April the choir sang under her direction at the House of Amateur Arts in a concert marking 71 years since the Armenian genocide.

The invitation to the May Day gala concert was declined, as the choir was now mostly new. A special recording of the oratorio for the Supraphon label was considered, but financial difficulties led to the decision to record the concert performance instead. The soloists were the Czechs Eva Leopoltova, Leo Mariam Vodička, Věra Soukupová and Richard Novák. At one rehearsal it was announced that Associate Professor Chonev had been given the title of professor, and he was congratulated by the singers and by Vasil Stefanov.

At midday on 16 June 1986 there was a dress rehearsal in the hall of the still unfinished Lyudmila Zhivkova festival complex (today the Festival and Congress Centre) in Varna, and at 7 p.m. an a cappella concert as part of Varna Summer. Early on 19 June the choir flew to Sofia and went straight from the airport to Radio Sofia; after rehearsals in the Bulgaria Hall, the concert on 21 June 1986 went excellently and was recorded in sound and on video by Bulgarian National Television. Since the whole choir could not fly on one plane, it returned to Varna in three groups.

At the annual election meeting on 27 June some sharp criticism was voiced – a sign of how seriously the singers took the choir’s work. A smaller board was elected – five members and a three-member audit committee – with Georgi Mihov as chairman. Fifteen singers were rewarded for the fewest absences and three for long service on the board. That same day the Hristo Botev programme of Bulgarian National Radio broadcast a commentary devoted entirely to the Sofia concert, judging that the choir had dominated the soloists and the orchestra, and played the whole tenth movement of the oratorio. On 5–7 July Stefanov rehearsed in Varna with the Varna Philharmonic and Morski Zvutsi, and on 7 July the oratorio was performed in the Festival Complex hall with the same soloists. Then came the holidays.

Chonev tried to revive talks about visits to West Germany and the Netherlands, but the telephone calls led to no agreement. Mimi Dimitrova was engaged for a year to put the choir’s archive in order, and in mid-September Chonev and R. Shtereva left on a tour of West Germany with the Varna Boys’ and Youth Choir.