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Daniel Barenboim conducts Staatskapelle Berlin in opening George Enescu Festival
The 2013 George Enescu International Festival begun on Sunday evening. The prestigious orchestra Staatskapelle of Berlin, conducted by Maestro Daniel Barenboim, gave the opening concert in the Big Palace Hall. The soloist was the Romanian born piano player Radu Lupu, who has been acclaimed on the important international stages of the world and who will play Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto No 4 for Piano and Orchestra in G Major, Op 58.
The programme of the above-mentioned concert also included George Enescu'a Romanian Rhapsody No 2 in D Major, Op 11, and Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony No 2 in E Flat Major, Op 63.
The same night, as part of the Midnight Concerts, the Romanian Athenaeum hosted a recital given by organ player Cameron Carpenter. The programme included the following music pieces: Etude after Prelude to Suite No 1 for Cello in G Major BWV 1007 by Johann Sebastian Bach and Cameron Carpenter, Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor BWV 542 by Johann Sebastian Bach and fragments of science fiction scenes by Cameron Carpenter.
As early as the first day other music events took place in Timisoara (western Romania) and Dorohoi (northern Romania).
The George Enescu International Festival is the only international cultural event to be organized by Romania and a genuine country cultural brand.
More than 150 events are scheduled to take place during the Enescu Festival between September 1 and 28 in Bucharest and in several cities of Romania: Arad (western Romania), Bacau (eastern Romania), Brasov (central Romania), Cluj (western Romania), Iasi (eastern Romania), Oradea (western Romania), Sibiu (central Romania) and Timisoara.
This 21st festival (it was founded in 1958) offers a unique cultural melange, which reveals the value of the Romanian composer George Enescu as well as of other famous composers such as Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi and Benjamin Britten, who are commemorated this year, Arnold Schoenberg, Gustav Mahler and Ludwig van Beethoven.
George Enescu's music will be heard in Bucharest as performed by some famous instrumentalists and orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Staatskapelle of Berlin, the London Philharmonic, the Munchener Philharmoniker, the Royal Philharmonic of London, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic or the Academy Saint Martin in the Fields.
The programme of the 2013 edition rises up to the standards of the international events of the kind and consolidates Romania's position as host of one of the most important festival the world over. Some of the most important personalities of classic music are to attend this festival.
Some of the guests are conductors Daniel Barenboim and Mariss Jansons, pianists Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Pinchas Zuckerman, Maxim Vengerov and Evgeny Kissin.
The following groups and soloists will be for the first time in Romania: the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester of Berlin, which will play Wagner's Tetralogy for the first time in Bucharest in 50 years, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Russia, John Malkovich and the Wiener Akademie, the Harmonious Chamber Orchestra of Osaka, the Vortice Dance Company.
Famous orchestras, which attended the previous festival too, such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and the Staatskapelle of Berlin, the Academia Santa Cecilia di Roma, will perform again during the festival this year.
This edition will also include the concerts in the series of 'Enescu and His Contemporaries,' the concerts titled 'Great International Orchestras' and 'Recitals and Chamber Concerts,' 'Music of the 21st Century.'
The National Opera House on September 6 will host the performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera 'Otello,' directed by Vera Nemirova. The orchestra will be directed by the Canadian born conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, who is a guest to the Enescu Festival.
The Vortice Dance Company of Portugal will give 'an inciting new performance' of the Dracula myth on September 16 at the National Opera House in Bucharest.
Last but not least, they will give a performance of Enescu's 'Oedipus,' in a new cast.
One of the most spectacular events of this year's festival, the drama 'The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer'), to whose success the Austrian conductor Martin Haselbock and the Austrian director Machael Sturminger, together with the American actor John Malkovich have made their contributions, will be presented on September 9. Being for the first time in Romania and twice nominated for the Oscar Awards, Malkovich, one of the legendary figures of contemporary American filmmaking, will play the part of a serial killer in the above-mentioned play at the Romanian Athenaeum.
The Estonian-born American conductor Paavo Jarvi, winner of the famous Grammy Awards, will direct the famous Orchestre de Paris on September 5, in the Big Palace Hall, and Maestro Lawrence Foster, who was the artistic director of the George Enescu Festival in 1998, on September 8 will conduct the Romanian Youth Orchestra on the same stage. The programme will include compositions by Ravel, Brahms and Dan Dediu.
Victor Rebengiuc, who is one of the best known and most loved Romanian actors, will make his debut as a narrator on September 7, in the Big Palace Hall, in Arnold Schoenberg's cantata 'Gurre-Lieder,' which will be performed by the choir and orchestra of the George Enescu Philharmonic, directed by the famous French conductor Bertrand de Billy.
The musicology symposium, organized by the Romanian Composers and Musicologists' Union and the George Enescu Museum, on September 5-6, will feature scientific reports presented by Romanian and foreign experts who are keen on Enescu's creation.
Being held every two years, the George Enescu Festival was founded in 1958 as a sign of the recognition of the Enescu genius, in order to pay homage this way to the life and creation of the great Romanian composer. The first editions of this festival and contest brought together remarkable personalities of the international music life of that time, some of whom were Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter and Herbert von Karajan.
The above-mentioned event is coordinated by Artexim, a company subordinated to the Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony, which is managed by Mihai Constantinescu.
The City Hall of Bucharest, the Romanian Television Company and the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company make their contribution to the festival being organized.
George Enescu Festival concerts to be broadcast live in cinema theatres
The classical music concerts of the George Enescu Music Festival will be broadcast live in cinema theatres, for the first time in the 50 years of the festival's history.
Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Berlioz, Enescu and Prokofiev are some of the big names of classical music whose works can be watched and listened to in the best audio and video setting at Grand Cinema Digiplex, organisers report.
The live broadcast initiative for cinema theatres is specially designed for those who could not buy tickets to the festival, those with a hectic professional life and limited free time for cultural events as well as for those who are in search of another way of watching spectacles.
The George Enescu International Music Festival is the most prestigious international cultural event organised in Romania.