Legend of the Bulgarian Clarinet

This wonderful selection, devoted to clarinettist Georgi Koev (born 1910), has been recovered by Canadian Yves Moreau from the tape archives of Bulgarian National Radio and the former state owned record companies, and by cleaning up vinyl releases from the early 1950s to the early 80s, shortly before the artist's death. The first notes of the opening track, slow and masterfully controlled, make it clear that the musician was unusual among recorded Bulgarian clarinettists in having a focused, piercing, almost woody sound. His repertoire seems to have remained close to village roots, with a deceptively simple style based on the almost compulsive repetition and variation of tiny melodic fragments. This might explain his relative obscurity, and the paucity of his recordings alluded to in Moreau's excellent notes, because otherwise it is hard to imagine how such an accomplished and inventive performer could have remained in the shadows. In some ways the earlier recordings, in which Koev's playing is less diluted by other soloists, are the most fetching: they achieve the most with the least in terms of harmony and arrangement. But not a single track here fails to hit the spot. A revelation.