Софийски фестивален оркестър

Set up in 1986 on Emil Tchakarov's initiative and attached to the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, the orchestra was assembled by audition, desk by desk, from players of the capital's opera and philharmonic. Its purpose was recording. Over four years it taped six Russian operas for CBS and Sony in the palace's own studio, among them Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina, Prince Igor, The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin; Prince Igor took a Grand Prix du Disque in 1989.