Piano Concerto no. 1

Kyurkchiyski's piano concerto was written for Milena Mollova, the Bulgarian pianist who had built her career largely abroad; she gave it its first performances. It is his principal concertante work, and its melodic material is shaped by Bulgarian song. Kyurkchiyski had studied with Vladigerov in Sofia before going to the Moscow Conservatoire, and later directed the Philip Koutev ensemble; he died in Sofia in December 2011.

He conceived the concerto as a tribute to his teacher Pancho Vladigerov, for the older composer's eightieth birthday; Vladigerov died before it was finished, and the work became a memorial. Kyurkchiyski wrote it deliberately in his teacher's manner, and in the second movement quoted him directly — a passage that itself carries Vladigerov's own quotation of the folk song Stari dyado ovtsi pase from his Third Piano Concerto. The bells belong to the pupil alone. Mollova also made the studio recording, with the Bulgarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Vladigerov.