Violinist Joshua Bell has been forced to cancel his participation in the George Enescu International Festival concert with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields scheduled for September 7, due to medical reasons.
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields concert will still take place on September 7, with great violinist Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider as conductor and soloist, returning to the Enescu Festival for his third attendance. The evening’s program retains two of the three works originally planned – Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Bizet’s Symphony in C major. The only change will be the inclusion of Bruch’s Concerto No. 1 in G minor Op. 26, with Znaider as soloist, instead of Dvořák’s Concerto in A minor for Violin and Orchestra.
Both the ensemble and the Festival organizers are grateful to Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider for accepting the invitation at such a difficult time and at such short notice.
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider is one of the best violinists of the moment. He stands out as both soloist and chamber music conductor and instrumentalist. In September 2021 he will take over as music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon. Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider is a frequent guest conductor of the world’s leading orchestras, such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Stockholm.
