„Balgarska Muzika Journal, Sofia, Manya Popova

“...Not once have I pointed out the “well-calculated power” of influence in Georgi Minchev’s music which I consider an artistic merit. The simplest explanation of this fact is: not only you have what to say and be able to speak well but you also have to make other people listen to you and hear what you say. This is a must in the atmosphere of sounds and intonations in which modern man exists. And I would add that even a hushed word, a quiet climax have a remarkable effect in Minchev’s music. After that comes the understanding of what you have just heard and I think that in this respect the composer gives his audience enough freedom, without imposing any conclusions…”

Balgarska Muzika Journal, No. 6, 1986 Alexei Izmirliev

“...And still another time I was convinced in the unfailing, programmed effect of Georgi Minchev’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. It was not a surprise but rather a new amazement at his incredible ability of social communication, at his vitality to “survive” in different repertoire circumstances…”

Narodna Kultura Weekly, Sofia, April 20, 1984 Vassil Kaznadjiev

“....The utmost clarity of structure in his Piano Concerto, its terse and well-organized form is full of emotional content. Passing from states of poetic contemplation and intimate lyricism through powerful gradations and to sharp dramatic emphasis and shattering culminations, Georgi Minchev covers a wide range of various, sometimes contrasting experiences of modern man in his efforts to be creative and spiritually elevated. Rarely can one come upon a contemporary work which blends so efficiently personal views on life and universal human ideas and generalizations…”

Otechestven Front Daily, Sofia, April 26, 1984 Dimitar Manolov

“… It is hard to rank precisely this composition (the Piano Concerto) – either among the dominating national trends or among the European avant-garde tendencies. As it is a specific work of its own. It is the result of the synthesis between national and universal characteristics, between innovation and its expert infiltration through an excellent artistic taste and feeling for what is permanent or transitory. And how amazingly high its emotional temperature is! It is closely related to the cosmogonic ideas of the 19th-century composers…”

Balgarska Muzika Journal, Sofia, No. 5, 1979 Manya Popova

“... The Georgi Minchev phenomenon demonstrated the power of personality presence in the processes of renewing and overcoming of prejudiced avant-garde complexes and, to be more specific, assisted in the clarification of terms…”

Ekaterina Docheva

“... None of his listeners needs some special “understanding” of his music, as Minchev is a creative artist, a mediator type. That is to say, an artist who possesses the means of attracting his audience’s attention, of creating and keeping the suspense in music…”

Bulgarian National Radio, Hristo Botev Channel, Kipriana Belivanova

“...When Georgi Minchev’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was performed for the first time it was welcomed as jump ahead, as a breakthrough. It is as if the composer possesses the ability to achieve high artistic results after long and serious work, to make huge steps ahead. His oratorio In the early 1970s his oratorio Old-Bulgarian Chronicles was accepted as a turning point, as it suddenly revealed a contemporary understanding of the most ancient monuments of Bulgarian literature, “revived” Bulgarian history in a manner which had not been previously known. Then there came another breakthrough, another jump to novelty with his Three Poems for Mezzo-Soprano and Symphony Orchestra – again Bulgaria’s history and existence yet in a deeply personal and lyrically refined manner. In 1976 our attention was drawn to Concerto Music for Orchestra with its daring rejection of all literary or sound-depicting motifs, in favor of the musical development - amazingly lively, intriguing and fascinating as if in a theatre performance, film or book. That is why the Piano Concerto was a turning point and well-expected stage in the composer’s career. And perhaps this is why the unique invention in Georgi Minchev’s Piano Concerto stood out clearly. … This is a composition which brings out many associations, many comments; this is a work which will further be praised as one of the significant moments in the development of Bulgarian music and will further attract the attention of musicologists. And it will be not only their attention. It started on its concert road with triumph!”

Balgarska Muzika Journal, Sofia Rodion Shchedrin

“...I am very fond of Georgi Minchev’s music. It seems to me that he as succeeded in achieving the most difficult thing – to have a say in our densely populated musical world. Always in search of new things, never old-fashioned, and governing the dramatic effect of comprehension of contemporary music…”

Balgarska Muzika Journal, Sofia Nikolai Petrov

“...Music may not possess tonality or measure, may be written in whatever form but it should posses one quality without which it would be dead. This particular quality, emotionality, is what abounds in Georgi Minchev’s music. What is amazing is that despite it elaborateness the Piano Concerto is liked by everyone without exception. Gennady Rozhdestvenski was filled with rapture when he heard it. It was heard and highly appraised by Dmitry Kitaenko. The Concerto greatly impreses the audience as well. There is a constant culmination of tension in the work’s dramaturgy. Its structure is non-standard, unique. It lives and changes its direction and degree of impact. The piano has been tortured by many in different ways – pulling its strings, hitting it with hammers or finally taking it to pieces. Here the instrument is not tortured. As I respect my instrument very much, this concerto fascinated me…”

Kultura Weekly, Sofia, April 30, 1999 Ekaterina Docheva

Georgi Minchev’s concert was a remarkable event from every point of view, in whatever manner you may comment it… I expected this concert with great curiosity as the arrangement of three symphonic works and their interpretation is a great adventure for both the orchestra and the audience, and always might be a risky job. But it turned out that this statement was not true when we have in mind a composer of this capacity. And this is not because there did not exist some kind of “reproduction” of sound matter contained in each of his compositions but because – as with all great masters – the features of personal style in the construction of a given composition are transformed and acquire a different semantic characteristic of figures participation in a game between intellect and intuition. It was yet another time that I was convinced that each of his works carries a very clear message….”

Otechestven Front Daily, Sofia Ekaterina Chamurliiska

...His never-failing kindness stand between himself and the world. With his everlasting smile, without being a jolly fellow, with his trustful blue eyes, without being gullible, he is always on the watch, always “with his finger on the trigger”. Rather, a doubter or a mocker. When speaking he often uses phraseograms full of intellectual content, giving out the versatility of his personality that lives and creates in an atmosphere of contradictions, hesitations and doubts. If you do not understand him (and he knows that he breathes tension), he is inclined to fondle you or tell you a joke. And even when telling jokes he is inevitably polite. And a little vain, as long as good tone permits. Sometimes I am tempted to see him as mad as a Minotaur dashing to the labyrinth’s exit. But he rather prefers to be the labyrinth’s architect. …”

Film-portrait on the Bulgarian National Television Milen Nachev, conductor

“... When I fist came upon his scores I found it difficult to assume that such a kind-looking person is capable of attaining such amazing power in the inner collisions of musical dramaturgy. They say about Gilbert Becaud, the great French singer, that he was Mr 20 000 Volts. Without attempting to make any comparisons I can say that the charge in Minchev’s works the tension is 200 000 Volts!”

Film-portrait on the Bulgarian National Television Stela Dimitrova, pianist

“...This is an exceptionally erudite musician, an expert whose creative work is marked by precision. He never starts composing a piece without having gather enough material or without having what to say…”

Film-portrait on the Bulgarian National Television Ivan Peev, concertmaster

“...Minchev’s writing is extremely original, his means of expression are extremely rich and even some things which might seem strange at first glance fit to place later on, in the process of work. For me this is a great creative artist!”

Film-portrait on the Bulgarian National Television Rumen Skorchev, artist

“...His music is full of character! I can well sense that as for example in literature or art there are works lacking character, as if washed by rain, without any personality. His music has strong impact. Through his music I very much acquired the ability to feel and understand better the contemporary musical art…”

Film-portrait on the Bulgarian National Television Plamen Djourov, conductor

“...When you open one of his scores and start working on it your first impression is of an amazingly clear and well-organized structure. Later on, in the course of work, you become aware that this is a piece of visual art expressed in sounds. And it seems to me that this is what the performers of Minchev’s music should try to achieve – precision, clear logic and a wealth of colour at the same time…”

Duma Daily, Sofia, July 3, 03.07.1995 Ivan Hlebarov

“...Despite its fragmentary character the third Мusica Nova Festival tells us of something else – of the equality of the Bulgarian musical avant-garde to the worldwide artistic processes. And this trend of development has its well-established history. If some 20 years ago the Three Poems by Georgi Minchev performed at the Festival’s first evening by Stefka Mineva and the Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra threatened the peace of mind of the then “guards” of Bulgarian music, now this works sounds like an eloquent document of the never-ending creative efforts in the new Bulgarian music…”

Film-portrait on the Bulgarian National Television Dimitar Manolov

“...I was a chance witness to a “scandal” caused by his Three Poems for Mezzo-Soprano. At first their inclusion in the Warsaw Autumn Festival was a matter of controversy in the Union of Bulgarian Composers so he had to write letters of complaint, to refuse his belonging to this institution, and so on. This is work which was not only one of the first of its kind which paved the road to this style of sonorous, aleatoric music but it also demonstrated many of Minchev’s personal characteristics – poetry, specific touch, rich orchestra color and a very intelligent sense of images and dramaturgy - which were further developed in his later works. And what were the causes for the previous controversy? The reason was that the composition end in pianissimo and diminuendo instead of fortissimo and did not sound optimistically in the finale…”