The George Enescu Festival comes to an end

The 25th edition of the George Enescu International Festival has come to an end.

Mihai Pelin, 27.09.2021, 13:50

The Royal Orchestra of Amsterdam closed on Sunday the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. The 25th edition of the festival brought together, between the 28th of August and the 26th of September, 32 of the worlds most renowned orchestras from 14 countries. More than 3,500 artists took to the stage in Romania, in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic. The festivals executive director, Mihai Constantinescu, said that organising the festival this year was madness, but that it brought more notoriety to the event.

Mihai Constantinescu: ”Some of the personalities invited at the festival thanked us for finally getting them out of their countries and bringing them to cultural events. I remember Sir Simon Rattle and Vladimir Jurowski talking about finally being able to travel, to perform before an audience. You saw them on stage, they were exceptional. Alongside foreign ensembles, the Romanian ensembles met our expectations, which proves that if we want to compete with musicians abroad, we have no problem doing it. I am talking about the ensembles of the Philharmonic, of the Radio and about the orchestras from other cities in Romania, that took part in the special evenings of the festival. ”

According to Mihai Constantinescu, the festivals programme was drawn up in 2019, but due to the Covid pandemic organisers had to revise it so that it can be put into practice. With an artistic programme held across four weeks and measures aimed at reducing health risks for spectators, artists, organisers and journalists, this years edition of the festival included the largest number of works by Enescu, 37, and the most comprehensive programme with the works of the great Romanian composer. If the foreign orchestras usually preferred to perform the two Romanian rhapsodies, in 2021 the audience had the opportunity to listen to and explore George Enescus other compositions, from his youth works without an opus number to chamber and symphonic masterpieces and excerpts from manuscripts discovered after his death. Symphony no. 2, composed in 1914 and Sonata no. 3 in Romanian folk style are landmarks of his music.

Unlike previous editions, in order to deal with the pandemic, the Enescu Festival this year was organised in four series: Great Orchestras of the World, Concerts and Recitals, Music of the 21st Century and Enescu and his Contemporaries. The Vienna State Orchestra, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra performed at the 25th edition of the festival, which also celebrated 140 years since the birth of George Enescu. (EE)