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Marietta Petkova & Lex Bohlmeijer – Muziek is een hart dat alles weet

• 25 September 2026
  • 19:30

Lex Bohlmeijer: “I interviewed Petkova multiple times over the next thirty years. We had intense, wide-ranging conversations: about music, her childhood behind the Iron Curtain, about art and poetry. That is why I have been eagerly awaiting this book about her for quite some time.”

The idea for this book germinated during the terminal illness of Marietta’s life partner: sound engineer, inventor, pianist, and composer Leo de Klerk (1958-2020). Around De Klerk’s deathbed, a dynamic develops between Marietta and Leo’s family that has something of a Greek tragedy about it. Bohlmeijer barely goes into detail about this, but in any case, Marietta is not granted the opportunity to say goodbye to her beloved.

Bohlmeijer watches as she nearly succumbs to this complex grieving process. In his concern, he devises a plan: what if they tried to document her turbulent life story together?

‘You tell, I listen. We connect the different moments of the journey (Bulgaria – Austria – Canada – Switzerland – the Netherlands), we relate them to the music. (…) We look back to understand what has been significant, how things have grown. (…) Building your life story as a meaningful connection.’

Soviet regime

And so, as a reader, you find yourself in Bulgaria in the 1960s and 70s. You read about the many restrictions, prohibitions, fears, and the bleak existence of a people under the Soviet regime. And then Marietta grows up in the cultural city of Ruse, where much of its former beauty has been more or less preserved. Marietta’s early childhood is marked by domestic violence, until her parents, both chemistry teachers, separate.

(Mother Mariya is now in her eighties and currently lives with her daughter in the Netherlands. She is the one to whom Bohlmeijer has dedicated this book.)

Bohlmeijer sees how Marietta Petkova is nearly collapsing under a complex grieving process and he devises a plan.

*Muziek is een hart dat alles weet* is a rich and engaging book for a fairly broad audience. Although the word ‘thrilling’ doesn’t quite capture the right emotional impact, you keep reading nonetheless: because you want to know what happens next, but also because it touches upon many universally human themes.

And as the icing on the cake, at the back is the Wilde Aardbeien playlist: 140 minutes of music, downloadable via a QR code for ten euros. As Lex Bohlmeijer already notes: ‘That is a solid double album.’

Lex Bohlmeijer (well-known presenter at Radio Klassiek): “At every meeting [for the radio], I heard another piece of her extraordinary life story. And each time I was surprised. What, is that in your backpack too? Finally, I thought, now I really want to hear the whole story, I want to understand the context, outline the development, how she was able to grow into the exceptional pianist she is.”

In consultation with Lex, Marietta talks about the core of her life-fulfilling passion, in the form of a piano recital featuring composers who have played an essential role in various phases of her development.

Program:

On a daily basis – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Claude Debussy – ‘Les soirs illuminés’

John Field – Nocturne no. 8 in A major

Frédéric Chopin – 2 Nocturnes op. 48

Bela Bartók – Klänge der Nacht (from Out of doors) (1926)

Franz Liszt – Notturno ‘Liebestraum’

BREAK

Robert Schumann – ‘In dernacht’ (from Fantasiestücke op. 12)

Veselin Stoyanov – Nocturne

Mikhail Glinka – ‘Memory of a Summer Night in Madrid’

Sergei Rachmaninov – Lullaby

Claude Debussy – Prelude ‘La terrasse aux audiences du claire de lune’

Claude Debussy – Prelude ‘Feux d’artifice’

Afterwards, Marietta and Lex will sign the book “Muziek is een hart dat alles weet” (Balans Publishing, 2025).

Marietta Petkova is a celebrated pianist whose exceptional quality was quickly recognized in the Netherlands and far beyond. Her interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Études-Tableaux is legendary. She is a pianist who knows how to reach the soul of music, whatever you understand by soul. But that is what you experience. She leaves the score behind and delves into the psychology of the composer. She seeks the connection between the one who composed the music and exposes an underlying sound world. This requires a finely tuned sensitivity and emotional maturity that few pianists possess. Anyone attending her concerts will certainly have an exceptional experience. Marietta Petkova knows how to move you to the bone and how to make even overly familiar pieces sound fresh. Mighty grand pianos like the Steinway melt like wax under her hands.