Narodna Kultura Weekly, Sofia, March 23, 1979 Lyubomir Kavaldjiev

“ ... And still, the unquestionable achievement at this year’s music review – Georgi Minchev’s Piano Concerto – belongs to the “purest” instrumental music. Even only one composition of that rank and emotional setting is capable of provoking optimistic thoughts and bringing new reason to a whole session of a new music review. Such works are not written each and every year…”

Balgarska Muzika Journal, Sofia, No 4, 1979 Evgeni Pavlov

“...What we observe in G. Minchev’s music are the non-traditional devices and associatively visual system of expression, the inner structure and architectonics, the specific type of musical dramaturgy. Yet this is not the “newness” that matters in the case, but rather its organic synthesis with the artistic content. Because G. Minchev’s Piano Concerto is one of the few examples in today’s Bulgarian symphonic music which features the most recently achieved artistic devices: depth of thought, content and emotional significance. Without doubt, this Piano Concerto was the greatest event amidst the works performed at the review this year…”

Balgarska Muzika Journal, No. 10, 1979 Margarita Kevorkian

“I wouldn’t try to be very specific in my judgment: G. Minchev’s Piano Concerto is one of the best works in the Bulgarian musical output during the last few years. I can see the great power of this composition in the stability which each logical link suggests, in each and every detail, as well as in the surprise effect, masterfully introduced by the composer in the artistic texture of his work. This is the type of music connected to its time and which attracts and expands the territory of new expressive means…”

Neue Musikzeitung, Köln (Germany), April/May 1979 Rudolf Luck Еdition Gerig

WDR III 28.02.1979

Sudd.Rundfunk II 27.02.1979

Freies Berlin II 26.02.1979

“In the conclusive symphonic concert, alongside the many routine works performed, there was an exciting exception: under the not pretentious title Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Georgi Minchev there was a piece rich in timbres, which in my opinion brings the Bulgarian tradition out of delay. The non-traditional orchestral content constructed a perfect timbre façade which the audience once and for all at the festival welcomed with applauses and shouts of “bravo”. The solo piano part was altered from time to time through a synthesizer – a timber effect which has been heard for the first time in Bulgarian music.

By the introduction of jazz elements, through the perfect orchestration and the touching points between art music and jazz, for me that piece was the most exciting in this week of Bulgarian music…”

Abendzeitung, Munich (Germany), December 12, 1981 Karl-Robert Danler

“…What makes this piece so attractive (Concerto for Piano and Orchestra).is its natural and unhidden strength, its frankness and spontaneity…”

Ruch muzyczny, Warsaw (Poland), October 13, 1983 Olgierd Pisarenko

“...In the Piano Concerto by Georgi Minchev there is present the history of the whole genre: Grieg, Rachmaninov, Ravel, Prokofiev, Bartok. Yet Minchev’s work does not consist of quotations or stylistic borrowing only but rather of respective musical and technical expressive “gestures”, provided by a solid language. The whole work has been constructed with great vigor, with conviction in the effect, with sense to the listener’s conscious and subconscious expectations and is brilliant not only in terms of keyboard virtuosity but also in terms of a concert work. That is why it not surprising that not long ago this piece won the first prize among the recommended works at the International Composer’s Tribune in Paris.”

Narodna Kultura Weekly, Sofia, May 2, 1986 Leah Coen

“... Georgi Minchev’s Piano Concerto contains not only vivid artistic ideas but also an unlimited range of devices whose dynamism, associative qualities and virtuosity make it a work full of vitality whose main principle and purpose are the pleasure of aesthetic experience. The revival of old principle (Mozart, Vivaldi, Debussy) is always revolutionary with the new rediscovery of beauty…”

Muzika Journal, Bucharest (Romania), No. 6, 1986 Dumitru Kapoyanu

This concerto for Piano and Orchestra is a masterpiece in the genre…

Ruch Muzyczny, Warsaw (Poland), October 20, 1980 Kzistof Droba

“....I was strongly impressed by Georgi Minchev’s Piano Concerto. The composition should be performed in this country as it is a concerto in the true sense of the word. It features a rich solo part in perfect harmony with the orchestra, an excellent form of narration, very contemporary sound, written by a creative artist who is not at least frustrated by avant-garde ideas. From the very beginning it breathes freshness, i.e. from the contemplative solo piano part to the dazzling virtuoso finale in Ravel style. Just one look at the score confirms the high quality of the work. All in all, it brings pleasure to the pianist (what scope for true performance!), to the orchestra and its conductor, to the listeners and the music critic…”

Hudobny zivot, Bratislava (Slovakia), November 11, 1985 Vladimir Cizik

“... Bulgarian creative art was represented by Georgi Minchev’s remarkable Piano Concerto. The composer’s attention is not focused only on the impressing solo part. Both sonority and expressive rhythmical models are blended to great extent and contribute to the work’s overall effect. The composer has successfully combined the piano with the effectively displayed harpsichord – both in dialogue and playing together. Invention, resourcefulness in terms of sound and color and in the logically resolved form ensured, together with the pianist’s capable performance, the success of the among the audience…”

Muzikalnaya Zhizn, Moscow (Russia) Rima Kosacheva

“... Georgi Minchev’s Piano Concerto is a brilliant work. I would say that in many respects it is a piece marking a new stage in Bulgarian music from the late 1970s and the early 1980s. It is marked by sincerity, open emotional expressiveness and most probably belongs to that powerful trend in musical culture which can be defined by the term of neo-romanticism…”

Dunavska Pravda Daily, Rousse, March 25, 1986 Iva Chavdarova

“… A stunning effect! A moment before bursting out in applause the audience seemed to shudder with the amazing, almost dramatic brilliance of the finale. And in this successful evening for the musicians, the conductor and the soloist, there was one piece in the face of its most resourceful masters which won the numerous festival audience. The Piano Concerto by Georgi Minchev is one of the modern scores that surprise us with its mastership, format and content…”

Otechestven Glas Daily, Plovdiv, May 6, 1981 Georgi Petrov

“…Let us draw our attention to this work. And try to be partial to this so music, so “partial” to the pulse of our modern times. Suggestive power, fluent music, colorful yet refined orchestration – these only few of the most impressing qualities of the Piano Concerto. It is a rare fact that a new contemporary work has been welcomed with such spontaneity at its very first performance….”

Lud, Bratislava (Slovakia), October 17, 1985 ` J.P.

“Georgi Minchev’s composition –Concerto for Piano and Orchestra -stood out as the most successful. On the one hand there was the personality of the soloist, and on the other hand we witnessed the exceptionally original instrumentation which uses the richest formation of percussion (an informative lecture to Minchev’s colleagues among the Slovak composers), the electronic modulation of the acoustic grand piano, the harpsichord, the vibraphone, the bells, etc. The strong pulse of this music was in great contrast with the cool and insufficient inspiration of the other works…”

Smena, Bratislava (Slovakia), October 26, 1985 Stanislav Bahleda

“...What created great interest was the Piano Concerto by the Bulgarian composer Georgi Minchev. The work is excellent not only in terms of technique but it attracted the audience’s attention with its wealth of music. There has been used a synthesizer for electronic transformation of the grand piano sound and the soloing harpsichord, which enriches the color of musical ideas…”

Narodna Kultura Weekly, Sofia, July 7, 1978 Igor Vaida, musicologist, Czech Republic

“...I was enchanted by Georgi Minchev’s Piano Concerto, a work that brought me strong emotional experience. I would like to note this as the emotional appraisals are not typical of a professionalist…”

Novo Slovo, Bratislava (Slovakia), No 10, 1985 Terezia Ursinova, PhD

“... Georgi Minchev’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was what made the greatest impression. His Concerto Music had its world premiere in 1977 in Prague. The piece was enthusiastically applauded and that was not only because of the pianist’s brilliant performance. The Concerto, which has most deservedly received a number of Bulgarian and international awards, won applauses to its author in Bratislava as well. The festival audience (in the framework of the whole concert program) treated the piece with greatest respect. We admired the change of moods, the clever introduction of a greater number of contemporary compositional devices, non-traditional approach to expressing the musical ideas. The Concerto’s dynamic movement, its directly demonstrated motority and clearly expressed movement are a demonstration of the composer’s personality. His full-fledged musicality was featured in Bratislava through the prism of invention and intellect, of great knowledge of the modern trends, an this is what characterizes Minchev’s music. We shall be happy to hear that music again…”

„Kultura” №.38 10.11.2017 Ekaterina Docheva

The height of the musical night was the piano concerto of Georgi Minchev (born 1939). The work is one of the most intense and impressive compositions, not only in his production, but also within the Bulgarian musical heritage embodied in the European one. We were reminded of the rich color pallet of the work, the startling contrasts in its evolvement, the blistering vibrations in the dialogue between orchestra and pianist.
We recognized the signs of Minchev's musical script, his skill of a playwright, his ability to organize and moderate the space.
The concerto feels contemporary without any patina remnant of the past years. Yet, today, 40 years after its creation, this brilliant composition continues to astonish the consciousness with the combination of modern piano, temporal vision, structural organics, impulses of symphony development which instantly communicate with the listener - namely, all (are) segments in a creative approach, significant for the longevity of a composition that has reached a classic eternity.