On the occasion of the International Francophonie Day’s celebration, ARTEXIM – the organizer of the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, honors the close cooperation in the cultural field between Romania and France, encouraging the development of new Franco-Romanian cultural projects.
The conductor Cristian Măcelaru, Artistic Director of the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, is also the musical director of the Orchestre National de France, a flagship ensemble of French musical culture.
ARTEXIM joins this initiative by publishing the recording of the second suite extracted by the French composer Maurice Ravel from the Daphnis and Chloé ballet, performed by the Orchestre National de France, conducted by Maestro Cristian Măcelaru. The concert took place in September 2021, at the Grand Palace Hall in Bucharest, within the jubilee edition of the George Enescu International Festival.
This date marks the commemoration of the signing, in 1970, in Niamey (Nigeria), of the treaty on the creation of the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACTC), which later became The International Organisation of la Francophonie (OIF)/ Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. As a member state of the OIF (since 1993), Romania celebrates annually, together with the other 83 members and observers, from 5 continents, the International Francophonie Day.
The Daphnis and Chloé ballet, a masterpiece of musical impressionism, was written in 1909, inspired by an ancient Greek short story about love. Its extensive choral orchestration is due to the composer’s idea of creating a choreographic symphony, as he originally called it.
The recording of this work can be watched for free on the www.festivalenescu.ro website, on Sunday, March 20, by accessing this link.
