On April 26, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares performed at BOZAR on the main stage. Alongside rose oil and Bulgarian yogurt, this renowned women's choir is one of Bulgaria's most acclaimed cultural exports.
Swiss music producer Marcel Cellier discovered the raw voices of these singers half a century ago and released the choir's first album in 1975, naming it "Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares" — an absolute bestseller. The French name has been used ever since.
Together with Stromae
Over the past fifty years, the choir has given thousands of concerts around the world. Choir members have also collaborated with various famous pop artists such as Kate Bush, U2, and recently with Stromae. Besides performing in Brussels, the choir has previously visited Bruges, Ghent, and the Abbey of Villers in our country.
The Henri Leboeuf hall was well filled. Of course, many Bulgarians were present to listen to the voices of their homeland. Tens of thousands of Bulgarians live in our country. Over the past decade, approximately one million Bulgarians have left their country and scattered across the world, especially to Western Europe, the US, and Canada. A true Bulgarian diaspora. Even though they live far from their motherland, they continue to cherish their language and culture.
The choir sang their usual repertoire of traditional songs, introduced by the conductor. Folk songs about life, nature, love, joyful songs and also sorrowful ones about illness and grief. Sometimes the entire choir sang, sometimes just two, three, or four singers. The singing is not aesthetically polished; the voices are not refined, but rather sound nasal, sometimes hovering between singing and wailing. A raw, archaic expression from the deep Balkans.
Complex for Western ears
It is folk music, and at the same time also art music, with the typical dissonances and often complex rhythms, characteristic of Bulgarian folk music. It is a tradition of song and dance that continues to be passed down from generation to generation in Bulgaria today. Irregular time signatures sound unusual and complex to our Western ears, but Bulgarian children learn them with their mother's milk. Fans of Bartók might recognize it from his Fifth String Quartet "scherzo alla bulgarese," in the complex time signature of 4+2+3 eighths!
The choir not only delivered a stunning musical performance; they were dressed, as always, in their distinctive traditional costumes. Visually, it was quite a feast. The concert was relatively short, lacking the variety they often bring, where folk songs are interspersed with Orthodox Christian hymns and contemporary compositions. After just over an hour, conductor Gancho Gavazov announced the final song. As a whole, it didn't sound as cohesive as usual. Well, even a choir can have an off day.
