Tuesday, February 8: All-Schubert concert at Bulgaria Hall. For this program we (Sofia Quartet) were joined by pianist Jeni Zaharieva, who is celebrating her fortieth season as a concert artist, and Sofia Philharmonic bassist Ivan Ivanov in Schubert’s Trout Quintet. I first played this piece – many times! – in 1997, Schubert’s 200th anniversary year and the year that I joined the Dimov Quartet. Later in the week I discovered that, like Rostislav Dubinsky (my chamber music coach at Indiana University), Jeni Zaharieva graduated from the Central Music School, the preparatory division of the Moscow Conservatory. The CMS website mentions her as one of their outstanding foreign graduates, although this is only half true: her mother is Russian.
Wednesday, February 9: Heading south to Blagoevgrad, there was a little extra time before the concert of the Ebony Hillbillies, special guests of the US Embassy at AUBG in honor of Black History Month. Enough time to turn off the highway 6 km south of Dupnitsa and travel 5 km east (in the direction of Rila mountain) to the village of Badino, a place we had never been before. There we encountered what we later learned was a locally-made (or at least –designed) sign warning drivers to watch out for domestic pets. Baba Vena, one of the village’s 40 or so remaining residents, explained that the sign was posted after a local dog was run over near the village square. We also met several other 80+-year-old residents, several barking dogs chained inside their yards, and one friendly unchained dog called Pirin after another nearby mountain. Pirin followed us to the village square so he could lie in the afternoon sun. From a bench there we saw two younger men on horseback, riding sidesaddle. Nobody else seemed surprised.
Geoff, I like the local dog-protection sign!
ReplyDeleteJust wondering, though, why your "And we did make it to the concert on time:" link takes the browsing person back to the top of your blog (it links to the address "http://vivacellissimobulgaria.blogspot.com/")? I haven't been able to imagine how that could have been inadvertent.