Julia Fischer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Vasily Petrenko, and Edward Gardner in the spotlight
Famous conductor Vasily Petrenko at the Festival with two works by Enescu
Enescu Festival audiences will welcome today and tomorrow celebrated conductor Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the only artists at this year’s Festival who have chosen to perform two works by George Enescu, one on each of their concert days.
At the Romanian Athenaeum, from 4:30 PM, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London will perform works from the Romantic repertoire alongside an opus by Enescu, under the baton of Vasily Petrenko. The concert opens with George Enescu’s inspiring and much-loved Suite No. 2 Op. 20, whose manuscript had been sent to Moscow by the Romanian government along with part of the country’s treasury and other Enescu manuscripts, to be then recovered in 1925. Enescu composed it in four months in the latter part of 1915. This neoclassical-inspired work is structured as a dance suite. The program is completed by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s famous Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64 (1844) and Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E minor Op. 98, a large work, the last symphony he composed (1884).
On the stage of the Grand Palace Hall, starting at 7:30 PM, we will hear a diverse program of contemporary, Romanian, and Romantic music. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner, will perform alongside famous violin soloist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, one of the most renowned ambassadors of Enescu’s music. The first work, by contemporary composer Michael Tippett, is titled Ritual Dances and is part of the opera The Midsummer Marriage. It is followed by an Enescu masterpiece, Sonata No. 3 for piano and violin Op. 25, “dans le caractère populaire roumain” (1926), with an arrangement for violin and orchestra made in 2008 by Romanian composer Valentin Doni especially for Patricia. The evening’s program concludes with Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, a work structured on a theme with 14 variations, composed in 1899. The work is shrouded in mystery and is considered to be riddled with hidden messages. Although there is no definite proof of these messages, the composer dedicated the work to “his friends illustrated in the contents of the piece.” The themes of the piece are constructed as characters, some of them being his wife Alice, a close friend, and the composer himself.
Both concerts can be watched free of charge online, on www.festivalenescu.ro/en/.
Also on the website of the Festival, via this link, you can read reviews, interviews, and additional information in the Daily Agenda of the Festival.
DAILY AGENDA
CONCERTS
SERIES: Concerts and Recitals
TIME: 4:30 PM
PRESS ARRIVAL: 4:00 PM
VENUE: ROMANIAN ATHENAEUM
ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
VASILY PETRENKO conductor
JULIA FISCHER violin
Program:
Enescu Orchestral Suite No. 2 in C major Op. 20
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64
Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor Op. 98
As the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary, its mission to enrich lives through orchestral experiences that are uncompromising in their excellence and inclusive in their appeal places the RPO at the forefront of music-making in the UK and internationally. The RPO collaborates with the most inspiring artists and is thrilled to welcome its new Music Director, Vasily Petrenko, from August 2021. His appointment stands as a major landmark in the Orchestra’s history, signaling its determination to broaden the audience for orchestral music while enhancing its reputation as one of the world’s most versatile ensembles.
Vasily Petrenko is Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (where he has held the position of Principal Guest Conductor since 2016) and Chief Conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra (since 2015). In September 2017 Vasily Petrenko was honoured with the Artist of the Year Award at the prestigious annual Gramophone Awards, one decade on from receiving their Young Artist of the Year award in October 2007. He has worked with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), St Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, and many others.
One of the world’s leading violinists, Julia Fischer is a versatile musician also known for her extraordinary abilities as concert pianist, chamber musician, and violin teacher. Born in Munich to German-Slovakian parents, Julia received her first violin lessons at the age of 3 and her first piano lessons shortly thereafter from her mother Viera Fischer. At the age of 9 she started studying with the renowned violin professor Ana Chumachenco, later becoming her successor. Julia Fischer holds numerous awards including the Federal Cross of Merit, the Gramophone Award, and the German Culture Prize. She plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1742), as well as an instrument made by Phillipp Augustin (2018).
SERIES: Great Orchestras of the World
TIME: 7:30 PM
PRESS ARRIVAL: 7:00 PM
VENUE: GRAND PALACE HALL
LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
EDWARD GARDNER conductor
PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA violin
Program:
Tippett Ritual Dances from The Midsummer Marriage
Enescu Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor Op. 25, “dans le caractère populaire roumain” (arr. for violin and orchestra by Valentin Doni)
Elgar Enigma Variations
One of the finest orchestras on the international stage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham. Since then, its Principal Conductors have included Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt, and Kurt Masur. In September 2021 Edward Gardner became the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, succeeding Vladimir Jurowski, who becomes Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his extraordinary impact on the Orchestra as Principal Conductor from 2007–21. Karina Canellakis is the Orchestra’s current Principal Guest Conductor and Brett Dean is the Orchestra’s current Composer-in-Residence.
Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic since October 2015, Edward Gardner has led the orchestra on multiple international tours, including performances in Berlin, Munich and Amsterdam, and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival. Edward was recently appointed Principal Conductor Designate of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with his tenure commencing in September 2021.
A combination of depth, brilliance, and humour, Patricia Kopatchinskaja brings an inimitable sense of theatrics to her music. Whether performing a violin concerto by Tchaikovsky, Ligeti, or Schoenberg or presenting an original staged project deconstructing Beethoven, Ustwolskaja, or Cage, her distinctive approach always conveys the core of the work. In a piece published by The Times Magazine Rebecca Franks writes, “Kopatchinskaja was like a cat teasing a butterfly, always ready to pounce on a passing phrase, whether answering the first violins or duetting with a perky clarinet. It has become her calling card to make the familiar unfamiliar.” (2019)
CREATIVE BUCHAREST
- 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. For all photos, kindly keep the credits visible.
