Bulgarian Suite, op. 21

The Bulgarian Suite of 1927 has four movements — Quasi marcia, Chant, Chorovodna and Ratchenitza — and is the work in which Vladigerov first set out at full length the method he would keep for the rest of his career: irregular Bulgarian dance metres handled with a late-Romantic German orchestral technique learned in Berlin. The second movement, with its long violin solo over slow-moving harmony, took on a separate life and is still played on its own in versions for violin or cello and orchestra. The finale drives on a ratchenitza rhythm to the close.