Vladimir Pantchev passed away quite suddenly, in his sleep, on September 8, 2021. He was born in Sofia in 1948 and had lived in Vienna since 1991, and was a close friend and important contributor to the Ensemble Wiener Collage (EWC). The tragedy of his son dying in the same way just a few months earlier had taken its toll on him. 

In addition to being a loyal friend to me and the EWC I co-founded, he was also an active collaborator within the ensemble both in terms of its organization as well as the scope of its repertory. Thus, he arranged for the ensemble to perform several times in Bulgaria, and was active in its committees; but above all, he enriched the repertory of the ensemble with his own works.

The strength of his musical language lay above all in his ability to create an immediate, unique mood in each of his works and to maintain that mood throughout a composition. In doing so, he made use of heterophonic techniques typical of the folk music of his native country.*

The first work he wrote for us was the Hommage à Denisov for clarinet, saxophone, violin and piano, composed in 1996/97. It is a work that is often performed by the EWC, and whose atmosphere is permeated by Bulgarian folklore. It concludes with an invocation of large church bells rooted in the Orthodox tradition of Eastern European faith – a late echo of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.

The Quartets cycle, written in 1998-2000, is a monumental chamber music project that explores the possibilities of quartet playing in 16 very different pieces with sometimes adventurous instrumentations, and has provided material for future projects by the EWC. This was followed in 2001-2004 by concertante works for double bass, trombone, flute and trumpet. His works Koléda and Kukeri, based on Christmas traditions and old fairy tales, were particularly impressive. A new concertante work was being developed during the two months before his passing; unfortunately, it can no longer be completed.

It fills me with pride to have been involved in the creation of many of his works. Vladimir's compositions offer important and exciting material not only to the EWC, but also to other ensembles. It is part of the musical tradition of Eastern Europe – a tradition that has been concealed from us for so long, and which oftentimes continues to be neglected and not fully recognized, although many of its characteristics are gradually coming into our field of vision.

that so long hidden from us, often neglected and still not fully recognized musical tradition of Eastern Europe, from which many details are only slowly coming into our field of vision. Vladimir Pantchev's work is necessary within a European context. It is imperative to make his work accessible to the wider public now.

* For an in-depth appreciation of his work, see my essay in Voices of Diversity, Vienna, 2018.