The George Enescu Festival has opened its doors
The most prestigious cultural event in Romania kicked off on Saturday
Bogdan Matei, 04.09.2017, 13:53
Running through September 24 in Bucharest and another seven big cities in Romania, the George Enescu International Music Festival will bring over 3,000 of the worlds most prestigious artists to our country. The honorary president of this years edition is world-famous conductor Zubin Mehta, while the festivals artistic director is conductor Vladimir Jurowski. George Enescus “Oedipe opera opened the festival in a performance that another legendary conductor, Lawrence Foster, has labelled “absolute perfection. This weeks highlights are the concerts given by Russias National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev and Romanian Horia Andreescu, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Romanian Youth Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne, whose soloist, Mihai Ritivoiu, was a winner of the 2011 George Enescu International Song Contest.
The festivals executive director, Mihai Constantinescu, has more: “Its a very diverse and difficult programme, which very few of you will manage to follow from beginning to end. Our concerts address all categories of viewers. We are expecting many young people this year, for a special series our director, Vladimir Jurowski, has introduced for the first time in this festival: the music of the 21st century, featuring internationally acclaimed composers. Their works will be performed on stage by Romanian orchestras and foreign soloists and conductors. This mix is very valuable for Romanian music, because other orchestras across the country will have an opportunity to perform modern works of all genres, from avant-garde and film music to symphonies, suites and electronic music, and I am grateful to the orchestras of Cluj, Timisoara, Bacau, Iasi, Ploiesti, Sibiu and the Royal Chamber Orchestras for meeting us halfway and accepting to perform these works.
The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation is the only media group in Romania to broadcast live concerts from the Enescu Festival on its music and culture channels. First held in 1958, the George Enescu Festival was put on hold in 1971 by the communist regime, and resumed after the regimes demise in 1989. Since then it has been taking place every two years. Considered the most important Romanian musician of all times, George Enescu was born in 1881 and was a close friend of the Royal House. He quickly became one of the most celebrated musicians in exile after the Second World War. With the establishment of communism in Romania, George Enescu settled in Paris, where he died in 1955.
