Dedicated songs, premieres, records and recordings

The appendix at the end of the book lists all of the choir’s activity. The full repertoire ends at 183 titles – the last being a spiritual by Theo Fürst, Mikis Theodorakis’s suite-ballet “Zorba” (in 2 parts and 21 scenes), Bizet’s “Te Deum” and Verdi’s Requiem.

Next comes a list of 20 songs dedicated to the choir by Bulgarian composers: G. Dimitrov’s “Dumnik-odumnik” and “Don’t tell such things”, Aram Berberyan’s “Lyrical Song for Varna”, “Song of the Little Boat” and the cantata “Song of Freedom”, Al. Yosifov’s cantata “Sing, Balkan”, five songs by P. Mechkov (among them “Kavals”, “Mesechinko” and “Buzludzha”), and works by G. Timev, St. Mutafchiev, Al. Raychev (“Morning by the Sea”, the cantata “Varna”), Iv. Spasov, Al. Tekeliev and Yovcho Krushev.

Premieres of Bulgarian works are listed separately – besides the dedicated songs, Lyuben Todorov’s Symphony No. 1 “For Freedom”, Milko Kolarov’s oratorio “April 1876” and Christmas suite “Kitni gosti koledari”, St. Dragostinov’s Symphony-Requiem No. 2 and arrangements by Slavil Dimitrov. Another list records foreign works that Morski Zvutsi performed for the first time in Bulgaria: Byrd’s “Alleluia”, Cherubini’s Requiem, Rachmaninov’s “The Bells”, Dvořák’s “Stabat Mater”, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Brahms’s “German Requiem”, and several works by Theo Fürst, including his Mass in F and “Ave Maria”.

The choir released four LP records on Balkanton: Cherubini’s Requiem (1972), Rachmaninov’s “The Bells” (1973), Kolarov’s “April 1876” (1979) and a record of a cappella songs (1982) – from the Gloria of Mozart’s Mass in C to songs by D. Hristov, T. Popov, Al. Raychev, M. Kolarov and G. Dimitrov.

The chronology of sound and video recordings begins in 1959 with Radio Varna and Radio Sofia. Highlights include the recording at Radio Budapest on 27 July 1963 – the first by an amateur choir in that studio – a recording for Radio Berlin at the Summer Theatre (1967), a Bulgarian Cinematography film about the chamber choir and the Moscow television programme “Varna – Odesa” (1969), and a radio recording in the hall of the Gdańsk Polytechnic (1970). The major Balkanton recordings were made with the Bulgarian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra in the Bulgaria Hall under Vasil Stefanov (Cherubini, 1972; Rachmaninov, 1973) and Vasil Kazandzhiev (“April 1876”, 1979). Later came recordings at the Golden Diana festival in Yambol (1980), in the Baroque Hall in Rostock (1981), of the jubilee repertoire (1982), in a private studio in Cantonigròs, Spain (1985), of Dvořák’s “Stabat Mater” at the Sofia Music Weeks (1986), of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Nikaia near Athens, and for a cassette in June 1993.