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The concerts of 11th and 12th January at the ‘George Enescu’ Philharmonic dedicated to the great conductor George Georgescu
The Philharmonic ‘George Enescu’ dedicates to the great conductor George Georgescu on the occasion of 60 years since his death, the concerts of 11sth and 12th January, starting at 7 pm, informs a press release sent on Friday
George Georgescu led the Philharmonic for four decades, and the concerts of next week will be conducted by Cristian Macelaru.
The programme of the concerts includes the work ‘Hydra’ composed by Stefan Stoianovici, work commissioned by the Philharmonic to be given its world premiere performance and the ‘Spanish Symphony for violin and orchestra’ by Eduard Lalo, with the violist Sarah Nemtanu as soloist.
The two concerts will be symbolically crowned, by the symphonic poem ‘A Hero’s Life’ by Richard Strauss.
George Georgescu (1887-1964) was born in Sulina, on 12th September 1887. He attended the Conservatoire in Bucharest, later studying the cello at the Higher School of Music in Berlin. Due to an accident, he was forced to give up the cellist career. Thus, in 1918 he conducts the first concert with the Berlin Philharmonic
On 4th January 1920, he holds his first concert at the Romanian Athenaeum and starting with 1921 he becomes, for four decades (with a pause of some years) the general manager of the Bucharest Philharmonic. He is also appointed the manager of the Romanian Opera House, and he started the first ballet school.
George Georgescu was close to the orchestra and the musical world to the last moment of his life. The last concert he conducted abroad was in Berlin, where he had started his career. Seven years before his death (11st September 1964) George Georgescu’s track record was impressive: he had conducted 52 orchestras in the whole world (850 concerts in Bucharest with unique programmes, including 100 Romanian pieces and numerous contemporary works in first performance), had collaborated with 150 Romanian and foreign soloists. The musical critics named the years when the maestro carried out his activity ‘The Georgescu Epoch’