George Enescu Festival 2011 online

George Enescu Festival 2011: Magic Exists and starts tomorrow

George Enescu International Competition 2011

Celebrating George Enescu’s 130th birthday anniversary, an important classical music festival in Europe, George Enescu Festival 2011, will take place in Bucharest, Romania, from September 1, until September 25.

Its 20th edition will also include performances held in Cluj-Napoca (central-western Romania), Sibiu (central Romania) and Timisoara (western Romania).

A large number of world’s leading orchestras and conductors will be present at this biennial event along with great names in Romanian music and nation’s emerging composers. The legacy of the great Romanian composer, George Enescu, is the core of the festival since it was founded in 1958.

Along with Enescu’s compositions, works by Shostakovich, Constantin Silvestri, Dinu Lipatti, Glazunov, Mahler, Bruckner, Liszt, Mozart, Dvořák, Prokofiev, Walton, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mahler, Wagner, Vivaldi, Chopin, Bach, Schumann, Brahms, Prokofiev will be interpreted.

Prestigious world’s orchestras, conductors and soloists will perform at George Enescu Festival 2011.

Romanian Athenaeum is the main venue of George Enescu Festival 2011

The Residentie Orkest and Christian Badea, the London Symphony Orchestra with Nicola Benedetti, the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev with the Academic Choir of the Romanian National Radio Society, the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Möst and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with Midori, Vadim Repin and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with Zubin Mehta and Yefim Bronfman, the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Antonio Pappano, the Orchestra National de France and Danielle Gatti with Hélène Grimaud, Denis Matsuev and Han-Na Chiang will perform during “Great Orchestras of the World” series.

“We have a very strong programme, which includes many fascinating contemporary works this year. This is a significant feature of what we are doing to develop our audience for new and existing compositions. The exciting thing is that foreign as well as Romanian artists are bringing their perspectives and ideas to new Romanian music. The Festival will also explore symphonic music from countries not usually associated with it, such as Tunisia, India, Japan and Palestine, in our new ‘World Music’ series.” said Mihai Constantinescu, the Festival’s Manager.

George Enescu Festival 2011 will also have another new series “Music of the 21st Century”.

Fourteen concerts from scores for chamber choir and string quartet to compositions for live instruments and electronic sounds will be played. A recital of new pieces from Iancu Dumitrescu’s Hyperion Ensemble (complete with music by Ana-Maria Avram and Dumitrescu himself) and performances of Guillaume Connesson’s Concerto for cello and orchestra and Cornel Ţăranu’s Remembranza (In memoriam George Enescu).

“In addition to its 21st-century strand, the Festival intends to unite young Romanian composers with their international colleagues for a day of workshops.“ said Constantinescu.

The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Boris Berezovsky, Ian Bostridge, the Fine Arts Quartet, Angelika Kirchschlager, Gidon Kremer, Murray Perahia, Yundi and Christian Zacharias will be also present.

The concert performed by Residentie Orkest of Hague in the opening of George Enescu Festival 2011 will be broadcasted on the Internet on September 1.

The George Enescu International Competition for piano and violin and the Award Gala will also be available for live watching on www.tvr.ro/festivalenescu/

The Independent mentioned the George Enescu Festival 2011, along with Verbier Festival, Bayreuth Festival, Festival D’Aix-en-Provence and Festival de Saint-Denis as important cultural events made more popular through the live streaming technology.

George Enescu appeared as conductor with Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and others American orchestras, he also conducted Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. Yehudi Menuhin was among his pupils.

He was a  composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher. He was born in 19 August 1881 in Liveni, Romania and died on May 4, 1955 in Paris, France, where he is known as Georges Enesco.

Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A Major, Concert Overture on a theme in Romanian folk character in A Major,  Oedipe opera are some of his compositions that will be rendered at George Enescu Festival 2011.