The Bulgarian Emil Tabakov (b. 1947) follows in the footsteps of such musicians as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, being active as both composer and conductor. Like Mahler, he prefers to write for large forces and now has nine symphonies to his name.

Again like Mahler, Tabakov’s symphonies explore the darker side of the human spirit in epic scores as austere as they are powerful.

In the atmospheric and expansive Symphony No.8 (2007–9), the dynamism suppressed in the first two movements is released in a cathartic discharge of energy in the finale. The ebullient Five Bulgarian Dances provide a complete contrast, taking Balkan folk-rhythms as the basis for their pile-driving vigour.

Both works receive their first recordings here, in this first album in a project to release all nine of the Tabakov symphonies.

Emil Tabakov first took to the podium at the age of seventeen and won the Nikolai Malko Young Conductors Competition in Copenhagen in 1977. At the head of a number of Bulgarian orchestras and as guest conductor of many orchestras elsewhere he has performed all over the world. Beginning to compose at the age of fourteen, he has now written nine symphonies and an impressive series of concertos. The Symphony Orchestra of Bulgarian National Radio, here making its first appearance on Toccata Classics, has acquired a leading position in Bulgarian musical culture and among the community of radio formations of Europe.