Krassimira Jeliazkova

2025 marks my 10-year partnership in the UK with Bulgarian violinist Krassimira Jeliazkova. Before that we had worked together for several years in different countries which involved a great deal of travelling for rehearsals and concerts.

It began rather inauspiciously when I was living in Poland. Krassimira arrived from Turkey, raring to pick up her playing work. We were introduced through a mutual friend, planned some repertoire, and I then put off one rehearsal after another. I was in the early stages of pregnancy, sick as a dog and I couldn’t tell her. A great partnership was nearly lost!

We went on to perform at some interesting venues in Warsaw including the Bulgarian institute, the American Embassy, and the Beit, the progressive centre of Jewish culture and heritage in Warsaw. Then there was the never-to-be-forgotten Mendelsohn extravaganza in minus 20 degrees. Despite the prestigious nature of the venue and the high-status financial backing, the heating failed spectacularly – I don’t quite remember how many layers of clothes I wore under my concert dress!

Moving forward, Krassimira moved to Germany, and I came to the UK. Nevertheless, concerts continued in both countries as well as a studio recording – to listen to the 3rd movement of the Mendelssohn violin sonata recorded in Berlin, please click here.

Our repertoire grew, as we added traditional compositions by composers such as Beethoven and Brahms, and virtuoso transcriptions by Wieniawski and Szymanowski. 20th century works by composers as diverse as Stravinsky, Messiaen, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Elgar and Walton figure prominently in our programmes as well as more mainstream Romantic repertoire such as Rachmaninov, Franck, and Mendelssohn, including the double concerto which we performed with East Anglia Chamber Orchestra in the 2018/19 season. Last year we expanded our repertoire to include works by Bulgarian composers including Krassimir Kyurkchiysky and Bulgaria’s most famous composer, Pantcho Vladiguerov.