Leonidas Kavakos, Valery Gergiev, Ádám Fischer, Maia Morgenstern, and Alexandra Dariescu today at the Enescu Festival
Violinist Leonidas Kavakos, famous for his perfect technique, renowned conductors Valery Gergiev and Ádám Fischer, actress Maia Morgenstern, and pianist Alexandra Dariescu headline the Enescu Festival today, September 6, 2021.
Leonidas Kavakos, internationally recognized as a one of a kind violinist, not least because of his flawless technique, captivating craftsmanship, and the integrity of his music, will perform Tchaikovsky’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major Op. 35 tonight, from 7:00 PM, at the Grand Palace Hall, with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. In the second part of the evening the orchestra will perform Anton Bruckner’s monumental Symphony No. 6 in A major WAB 106.
From 4:30 PM, at the Athenaeum, the Basel Chamber Orchestra performs under the baton of renowned conductor Ádám Fischer. Pianist Alexandra Dariescu will play Clara Schumann’s Concerto in A minor for piano and orchestra Op. 7, a work considered by specialists to be a great manifesto of feminism. The second part of the concert brings the beautiful and melancholic Symphony No. 3 in A minor Op. 56, “The Scottish,” by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
The well-known actress Maia Morgenstern will narrate in the performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, to take place today at the Cotroceni National Museum from 7:00 PM, as part of the Creative Bucharest series and with the participation of the Constantin Silvestri Ensemble, under the baton of Iosif Ion Prunner.
In the Enescu in Other Cities series, there will be a recital by the Fine Arts Quartet, with Beethoven and Shostakovich on the program, at the Auditorium Maximum hall in Cluj-Napoca, from 7:00 PM.
DAILY AGENDA
CONCERTS
SERIES: Concerts and Recitals
TIME: 4:30 PM
PRESS ARRIVAL: 4:00 PM
VENUE: ROMANIAN ATHENAEUM
KAMMERORCHESTER BASEL
ÁDÁM FISCHER conductor
ALEXANDRA DARIESCU piano
Program:
Clara Schumann Piano concerto in A minor Op. 7
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 in A minor Op. 56, Scottish
Ádám Fischer is one of the leading conductors of our time. Born in 1949 in Budapest, a student of Hans Swarowsky, he knew from an early age that music can and has to carry a message. With this in mind, he founded the Österreichisch-Ungarische Haydn Philharmonie in 1987, with musicians from his two home countries Austria and Hungary, to overcome not only the borders of the Iron Curtain but also the prejudices against the music of Joseph Haydn. His recording of the complete 104 symphonies by Joseph Haydn remains unsurpassed to this day. Ádám Fischer is an Honorary Member of the Musikverein für Steiermark in Graz. He holds the honorary Austrian title of Professor and he has received the Order of Dannebrog from the Queen of Denmark.
Pianist and creator of “The Nutcracker and I,” Alexandra Dariescu stands out as an original voice whose fundamental values are shining a light on gender equality in both her concerto and recital programs, as well as championing lesser-known works, advocating for diversity and inclusion. She has performed to critical acclaim with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Oslo Philharmonic, European Union Youth Orchestra, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, among others.
SERIES: Great Orchestras of the World
TIME: 7:30 PM
PRESS ARRIVAL: 7:00 PM
VENUE: GRAND PALACE HALL
MÜNCHNER PHILHARMONIKER
VALERY GERGIEV conductor
LEONIDAS KAVAKOS violin
Program:
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D major Op. 35
Bruckner Symphony No. 6 in A major WAB 106
Born in Moscow, Valery Gergiev initially studied conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory. Still a student, he won the Herbert von Karajan Conductors’ Competition in Berlin. In 1978, aged 24, he became assistant conductor to Yuri Temirkanov at the Mariinsky Opera, where he made his debut conducting Prokofiev’s operatic adaptation of War and Peace by Tolstoy. More than two decades ago, he assumed his current position as director of the legendary Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, which has since become a cornerstone of Russian opera culture. Valery Gergiev’s close cooperation with the Munich Philharmonic began in the 2011-12 season. Since then, he has performed all of Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies and a cycle of works by Igor Stravinsky both with the Philharmonic and with the Mariinsky Orchestra. Since the 2015-16 season he has been principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic.
Leonidas Kavakos is an exceptional artist who works with the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors and plays as recitalist in the world’s premier recital halls and festivals. He is an exclusive recording artist with Sony Classical. The three important mentors in his life have been Stelios Kafantaris, Josef Gingold, and Ferenc Rados, with whom he still works. By the age of 21 Leonidas Kavakos had already won three major competitions: the Sibelius Competition in 1985 and the Paganini and Naumburg competitions in 1988. This success led to him recording the original Sibelius Violin Concerto (1903/4), the first recording of this work in history, which won the Gramophone Concerto of the Year Award in 1991. He went on to win numerous other prizes.
SERIES: Enescu in Other Cities
TIME: 7:00 PM
PRESS ARRIVAL: 6:30 PM
VENUE: AUDITORIUM MAXIMUM HALL, CLUJ-NAPOCA
FINE ARTS QUARTET
Program:
Beethoven String Quartet No. 1 in F major Op. 18 No. 1
Shostakovich String Quartet No. 1 Op. 49
Tchaikovsky String Quartet No. 1 in D major Op. 11
The Fine Arts Quartet, “one of the gold-plated names in chamber music” (Washington Post), ranks among the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, with an illustrious history of performing success and an extensive legacy of over 200 recorded works. Founded in Chicago in 1946, the Quartet is one of the elite few to have recorded and toured internationally for three quarters of a century.
The Quartet’s renowned violinists, Ralph Evans (prizewinner in the International Tchaikovsky Competition) and Efim Boico (former concertmaster of the Orchestre de Paris under Barenboim) have performed together for 38 years. They are joined with two eminent musicians: violist Gil Sharon (founder of the Amati Ensemble) and cellist Niklas Schmidt (co-founder of the Trio Fontenay).
Many of the Quartet’s latest releases have been selected for inclusion on Grammy® Awards entry lists in the categories “Best Classical Album” and/or “Best Chamber Music Performance” and have received multiple awards and distinctions. The Quartet also received the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, given jointly by Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. The Quartet’s latest CDs (Mozart, Dvořák) were released by Naxos in 2021.
CREATIVE BUCHAREST
TIME: 7:00 PM
PRESS ARRIVAL: 6:30 PM
VENUE: COTROCENI NATIONAL MUSEUM
Program:
Arnold Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire Op. 21
MAIA MORGENSTERN narrator
CONSTANTIN SILVESTRI ENSEMBLE
IOSIF ION PRUNNER conductor
CRISTIAN NICULESCU piano
CRISTINA ENASESCU video projections
DAN SCHLANGER director
Romanian translation: VLADIMIR POPESCU-DEVESELU
Part I
Saint-Saëns Les cloches du soir Op. 85
Debussy La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune
Dediu Pierrot solaire
Act I. Pierrot Lunaire
Part II
Enescu Carillon Nocturne Op. 18
Satie Gnossienne No. 3
Satie Nocturne No. 3
Act II. Pierrot Lunaire
Part III
Mozart La tartine de beurre
Mozart 6 German Dances K. 606
Act III. Pierrot Lunaire
Final:
Mozart Five Contredanses K. 609
During some of the instrumental works presented in the performance a videogram will be projected, divided into three parts, on aspects of Arnold Schoenberg’s life and creation.
Distinguished with the Cultural Merit Order in the rank of Knight (2003), conductor Iosif Ion Prunner was born in Bucharest, into a family fond of music and with deep cultural roots. He made his debut when he was 6 years old and he played on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum aged 14. In 1991 he established the Foundation and Chamber Music Orchestra “Constantin Silvestri” and in 1996 he was director of the eponymous International Conducting Competition. In 1997, maestro Cristian Mandeal assigned him with conducting the Philharmonic Choir. He was congratulated by the famous pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, who expressed his “admiration and affection” for the conductor and the ensemble he led during the George Enescu Festival.
- Exhibition of photographs and unpublished documents about George Enescu and the Enescu Festival titled “Enescu. Genius and Festival. Face(t)s of Love” from September 1 to 26, 2021, at the Athenaeum and the Palace Hall. The exhibition is a joint project of the Enescu Festival, together with its official photographers Andrada Pavel, Catalina Filip, Andrei Gandac, and Alex Damian, the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Enescu Museum.
- 7-episode film dedicated to the 2021 George Enescu International Festival, broadcast by TVR.
- 7-installment film titled Constantin Silvestri – Avant-gardist, master improviser, homme passionné, a 2021 UK production by Anda Anastasescu and Nicolas Gaster; installments: Prelude, Lead Soldiers, The Little Shepherd, Fireworks, Pictures at an Exhibition, Nocturne; program: Saturday, August 28 – Sunday, September 26, 2021.
FURTHER INFORMATION
PROGRAM, ARTISTS, NEWS: https://www.festivalenescu.ro/en/
DAILY AGENDA with interview, reviews, and additional information: https://bit.ly/3jneKsC
PRESS ACCESS: Concert access of accredited members of the press will be according to the accreditation forms. Accreditation is not required for any other events.
TVR VIDEOGRAPHY: Televisions may broadcast video excerpts from the link below, always citing the source (TVR), during their newsreels. It is not allowed to upload the excerpts to Facebook.
- ftp://newftp.tvr.ro/; username: enescu.tvr; password: b@sBx4Ui (please use FileZilla to open the files)
PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY: All media may use photo and video images provided by the Enescu Festival via the following link: https://bit.ly/3DoPoCI. Kindly keep the credits visible for all photos.
