Tabakov: Complete Symphonies Vol. 8

The symphonies of Bulgarian composer and conductor Emil Tabakov explore the darker side of the human soul in monumental scores that are as rigorous as they are powerful. His language, with its wild, explosive energy and elemental force, lies somewhere between Dmitri Shostakovich, Edgard Varèse, Allan Pettersson, and Robert Simpson. His Tenth Symphony (from 2018) begins with the first of many wild outbursts, which occasionally give way to an uneasy calm. The inconsolable grief of the slow movement eventually boils over into an epic passage of colossal rage. In contrast, the scherzo begins with a mood of mischievous humor that soon develops into a swirling, breakneck, nerve-wracking ride. Like the first movement, the finale begins with the unbridled power of a raging torrent; it relents only briefly to reveal a devastated landscape reminiscent of Kafka’s “There is hope – but not for us.” The symphony is preceded by a solemn, deeply felt symphonic essay for strings, the “Adagio for String Orchestra” (2016), an epitaph for a lost love.