Divertimento for String Orchestra

Pencho Stoyanov wrote the Divertimento for string orchestra in 1959, prompted, as he said himself, by the anniversary of Prokofiev's death; Dobrin Petkov conducted the first performance with the Plovdiv Philharmonic. From that premiere until 1966 the piece was not played in Bulgaria, banned over what the composer had said about Prokofiev - that he had given us strength and faith in the light, and had been forgotten for other reasons. It has since had some fifty performances at home and abroad, in Israel, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia.