Lilly Bogdanova is presenting her first solo album in just a few days’ time. It is called The girl with flaxen hair, named after one of the pieces included in it. But the title also gives a personal touch – the young pianist’s hair really is “flaxen”. She is a pretty and frail girl, just like the music of Debussy. The recordings were made at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. The concert, promoting the album is at the Bulgaria chamber hall on November 24.

Besides her new album, there is one more thing Lilly Bogdanova has every reason to take pride in – in the first week of November she took part in the International Piano Competition Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Meryem.

“I have taken part in many piano contests but this was the biggest of them all,” says the pianist. “There were more than 100 participants from Russia, France, Italy, Japan… a total of 20 countries. The prize I won there is a special award for best performance of a sonata by Mozart. The piece was mandatory for the competition. I am happy because Mozart is very difficult to perform, and not just his piano works. Friends who play other instruments agree. And that makes the award all the more valuable to me.”

Lilly is currently in her second year at the Pancho Vladigerov National Music Academy. She is studying with Prof. Borislava Taneva, an esteemed performer and piano pedagogue. Before that she studied with Emilia Kaneva at the Lyubomir Pipkov National Music School. After her return from Rabat, Morocco, the young pianist has been working hard for the concert at Bulgaria hall. She also had a brief photo session for her album.

“All of the music included in the CD is French,” Lilly goes on to say. “We have Debussy’s 12 preludes from Book 1. They are all short pieces – three minutes each but evoke such different states of mind. The other composer I am presenting is César Franck. I perform his Prelude, Choral and Fugue cycle; all of them beautiful works. The idea is to present composers from one country who lived more or less in the same period but created works with a wide range of musical intensity. I made the recordings in Vienna. I started last summer and finished off the album in 2014. I shall be performing several solo pieces as well as Sonata for Cello and Piano by Debussy, together with Atanas Krustev. I think it will be a good thing to present a different aspect of the composer’s work.  I hope the audience will enjoy the music we have selected and that the CD will be a success.”

The audio file features the following works:

-  The girl with flaxen hair, Claude Debussy;

-  Wind on the plain, Claude Debussy;

-  What the West wind saw, Claude Debussy.

English Milena Daynova