Bucharest - The 17th “George Enescu” International Festival and Competition is a special one, as 50 years ago (on May 4) the great Romanian composer passed away.
Thus, it is perfectly natural to have this edition of the Festival dedicated to George Enescu, and to have great works by Enescu in the programme. The same as it is natural to listen during the Enescu Festival to plenty of music by Romanian composers (44 compositions are included in the concerts and recitals of this edition).
The opening concert takes place on Sunday, September 4, at 19.30 hours, at the Palace Hall, and will be given by the Orchestra of “George Enescu” Philharmonic from Bucharest (see picture) under the baton of conductor Horia Andreescu. The programme includes two of the masterpieces of Enescu’s music, the Romanian Rhapsody no. 1 in A major op. 11, and the Symphony no. 1 in E flat major op. 26. The Triple Concerto in C major for piano, violin, cello and orchestra op. 56 by Beethoven will be played between the two pieces by Enescu, soloists being Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Alexander Rudin, Brigitte Engerer. The most popular work by Enescu, played and known everywhere in the world, the Romanian Rhapsody no. 1 is, the same as the Rhapsody no. 2 in D major, a creation of the year 1901. The first audition of the two Rhapsodies and of the Suite no. 1 in C major for orchestra took place on February 23/March 8, 1903, at the Romanian Athenaeum, being played by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bucharest (the present “George Enescu” Philharmonic) conducted by George Enescu.
“The prevailing element in the Rhapsody no. 1 is the Romanian popular dance,” wrote the composer Mircea Chiriac. The Symphony no. 1 (1905), whose first audition took place in Paris, on January 21, 1906 (the Colonne Orchestra, conducted by Edouard Colonne) is “a huge cry of happiness, not in the least a youth work. (...) And, maybe that a “cry of happiness” is too little to say. It is a continuous aspiration for an ideal of beauty, light and truth, almost a metaphysical impatience, if the two terms can be associated. Enescu, at the age of 24, appears to be one of the purest souls who has ever manifested itself in music.” (Pascal Bentoiu, Enescian masterpieces, 1984).
The exhibition George Enescu - Portraits (from the archives of the museum) will be opened on Sunday, September 4, at 12.00 o’clock, in the Grand Hall and the Cantacuzino Hall of the National Museum “George Enescu” (Cantacuzino Palace, 141, Calea Victoriei, Bucharest), as part of the International Festival and Competition “George Enescu.”
The Six Books George Enescu - chamber music, edited by Sherban Lupu, with a preface by Ilinca Dumitrescu will be launched on the same occasion. The books are published by the Romanian Cultural Institute and the National Museum “George Enescu.”
Documentary films Video Publishing House, subordinated to the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, organised on Thursday the projection of two documentary films, occasioned by the Year “George Enescu.” The first film, which has already appeared on DVD, under the title “Restitution -- George Enescu Festival evoked in the Romanian documentary film,” assembles fragments from films from the National Film Archives about the early editions of the Festival and Competition “George Enescu” beginning with the year 1958. The selection belongs to director Paul Orza. The sequences with Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrach, George Georgescu, Sviatoslav Richter, Ion Voicu, Ghenadii Rojdestvenski, Stefan Ruha, Lorin Maazel, Sir John Barbirolli, and others, are impressive. The second documentary film called “Enescu, at the crossroad of times,” is a co-production Video Publishing House and Label/SACEM (France), directed and shot by Nicolae Margineanu, on a script by musicologist Ada Brumaru.
Romania Report
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