A rural community cultural center in the Ruse region trasures a musical article of virtue. This is the grand piano on which the great Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich performed. The instrument has been kept for more than half a century in the Probuda community center in the village of Nikolovo, which received it as a gift in 1967 and until recently has used it actively for concerts and ballet performances.
Dmitry Shostakovich visited Ruse twice – in 1958 and 1965. In January 1958 the composer toured Bulgaria, and in 1965 he attended the International Festival „March Music Days“ for the premiere of his opera „Katerina Izmailova“. In Ruse, Shostakovich performed as a soloist his Second Piano Concerto with the Ruse Philharmonic Orchestra.
As there was no grand piano in the concert hall, the instrument had to be moved from the rehearsal room and carried across the city square in the center of Ruse.
„As the piano weighs 700 kg, twenty orchestra members carried it by hand to the place where the concert took place,“ the secretary of the community center explains.
It is interesting for young pianists like Nikolay Dimitrov to to see and touch the valuable musical instrument. „For a pianist, it is important for the instrument to have top quality, but I was fascinated with this instrument because of its sentimental value and rich history,“ said Nikolay Dimitrov.
The municipality in Ruse intends to find new use for the piano and plans to exhibit it in a museum.
