An evening at the “George Enescu” Festival

Let us randomly take one day from the beginning of the 20^th edition in the “George Enescu” International Festival up to the day. Let's say, the 5^th of September.

At the Athenaeum, for Yundi's recital, it was so crowded you couldn't swing a cat. One of the most en vogue pianists of the moment, an unbeatable Chopin recipe and one the “must-sees” in the festival. I have to admit that I went inside the Athenaeum shortly, but long enough to see a perfect pianist, however maybe too closed into his own world for the taste of European audiences who understands by Chopin specifically a certain type of displaying emotions

At the National Theatre, the JTI meetings brought to us Gigi Căciuleanu and his Noche Bach with the National Chile Ballet. In the stage and light design by Dan Mastacan, I witnessed a first part, intensely abstract, where Bach's music was interpreted in its... mathematical key, but no less impressive in the deeply touching version of the Chilean ballet dancers.

The curiosity of also seeing something of the 21^st century music took us to the Radio Hall, where we caught the ending of the Concerto no. 1 for cello and orchestra by Anatol Vieru with soloist Laura Buruiană and Ensemble Orchestral de Paris conducted by Olari Elts, a concert where anyone can step into the atmosphere to be able to understand that contemporary music may electrify a hall filled with hundreds of people when it is played at the level that a specialised dedicated company can do it and when the works have the consistency and the sense that this type of discourse entails, as it happened with Henri Dutilleux, Anatol Vieru and Arvo Arvo Pärt.

I didn't head  home before stopping in the “George Enescu” Festival Square, where although we didn't get the weekend crowds, people listened in attention worthy of a real concert hall the chamber micro-recitals given by September Quintet and Artmusik Quartet, staying until late to see the film screened in the square, that evening Gigi Căciuleanu - Oratory. This alternative for those who couldn't afford getting a ticket in the festival is one of the nicest gestures from the festival's organisers, without conditioning, asking anything, and simply offering the audience, naturally and generously good classical music outdoors.

The festival goes on. And the figures provided by the organisers from the very beginning are impressive. The Euronews web site noted in the article “20th Enescu festival raises the curtain” (http://www.euronews.net/2011/09/02/20th-enescu-festival-raises-the-curtain/) that in spite of the general economic crisis “the Enescu festival’s budget has been almost uncut, showing how important the event is for Romania”.

The George Enescu international contest is mentioned in the foreign press for the reputation it acquired with years and for the large number of participants this year, 183 altogether, in the four sections – violin, cello, piano and composition.

As of the 8^th of September, the series of Great Orchestras at the Palace Hall resumes into force, the orchestras expected including the Wiener Philharmoniker with Franz Welser Möst, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta, soloists Yefim Bronfman and Vadim Repin, Staatskapelle Berlin lead by Daniel Barenboim, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale Santa Cecilia di Roma conducted by Antonio Pappano, Orchestre National de France, London Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the “George Enescu” Philharmonic conducted by Ghenadi Rojdestvensky, National Radio Orchestra conducted by James Gaffigan or the National Youth Orchestra with Cristian Mandeal at the conductor's desk.

A new series is the one called “World Music”, starting off on the 15^th of September at the Radio Hall and delivering remarkable concerts bringing on stage interpretations of Indian, Japanese, Argentinean, Yiddish, Lebanese, Moroccan music, etc.

In case you live outside Bucharest, let us not forget that the programme of this festival's edition includes no less than 23 concerts in the country in Arad, Buşteni, Cluj, Craiova, Iaşi, Sibiu, Târgu Mureş and Timişoara.

This festival's edition programme includes in over 160 musical events, six series of concerts, a modern and appealing internet web site, and at the beginning of the festival, the organisers announced that over 125,000 tickets were on sale as subscriptions or individual tickets, and that the hall occupation was already over 93%. However, there are many concerts in parallel, which gives choice options, as the program of the current edition takes place in eight spectacle and concert hall (the Large Palace Hall, the Romanian Athenaeum, The Bucharest National Opera, The “I.L.Caragiale” National Theatre, The National Arts Museum Auditorium, the “Mihail Jora” Hall of the Romanian Radio Company, The National Music University in Bucharest, the Small Hall of the Romanian Athenaeum) and the Festival Square.

For a complete programme of the Festival visit the festival's web site at: http://www.festivalenescu.ro/.