Between May 11 and 13, the Enescu Festival Online presents Orchestre National de Lille conducted by Vlad Vizireanu in a concert that took place at the Romanian Athenaeum, during the 2019 George Enescu International Festival. The program opened with the rarely-performed Chamber Symphony for 12 Solo Instruments by Enescu and continued with the Violin Concerto in D major by Johannes Brahms and Symphony Harold in Italy by Hector Berlioz, featuring violinist Sergey Khachatryan and violist Timothy Ridout, respectively, as soloists.
The Chamber Symphony was performed in premiere in 1958, at the first edition of the George Enescu International Festival, after which conductor Constantin Silvestri told the audience: “This work is Maestro Enescu’s masterpiece; it is more difficult to comprehend than others due to its overly modern language. This is why we will perform it fully once again.” Sixty years later, the Orchestre National de Lille’s 12 solo instruments interpreted this elusive piece, at once elegiac and exploratory, cosmopolitan and nostalgically Romanian, with profound sensibility, leaving the audience impressed.
The Orchestra was conducted by Romanian–born American musician Vlad Vizireanu, who was recently confirmed to the Music Directorship of Knox-Galesburg Symphony. Vlad Vizireanu made his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra at Barbican Hall as the Second Prize Winner in the 2016 Donatella Flick Competition. He was invited among 14 conductors (out of 400 applicants worldwide) to participate in the renowned Mahler Conducting Competition with the Bamberg Symphony. He also won Second Prize in the 11th International Cadaqués Conducting Competition where he conducted the Cadaqués Symphony in an internationally televised concert in L’Auditori Hall, Barcelona. An ardent advocate of new music, Vizireanu is the Founder & Executive Director of Impulse New Music Festival, a two-week summer program in Santa Barbara, California which brings together young composers and performers to discover new compositions and develop practical skills for the demanding career of music. Vizireanu has showcased new compositions with the Castleton Festival Orchestra, Cadaqués Symphony, and Hebrides New Music Ensemble.
Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Sergey Khachatryan won First Prize at the VIII International Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki in 2000, becoming the youngest ever winner in the history of the competition. In 2005 he claimed First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Highlights of the recent period include Sergey’s residency at the BOZAR, Brussels which included a pair of recitals and a concert with Orchestre National de Belgique and Hugh Wolff. He also performed with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra with Stanislav Kochanovsky, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and Gulbenkian Orchestra with Lorenzo Viotti, Bamberger Symphoniker with Ludovic Morlot and Rotterdam Philharmonic with Valery Gergiev, as well as at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan under Myung-Whun Chung. Recently, Sergey embarked on a tour of the US and Europe with Alisa Weilerstein and Inon Barnatan with a program titled Transfigured Nights, featuring the music of Beethoven, Schoenberg, and Shostakovich.
With awards including the inaugural Sir Jeffrey Tate Prize in Hamburg and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, Timothy Ridout has confirmed his position at the forefront of young European soloists. He has been a BBC New Generation Artist since 2019 and will join the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center in 2021. Equally in demand as a recitalist and chamber musician, his engagements include several appearances per season at the Wigmore Hall as well as throughout the UK, Europe, and Japan. In 2016 Ridout won the 1st Prize in the Lionel Tertis Competition and was selected by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT). Other prizes include the 2019 Thierry Scherz Award at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad and the 1st Prize at the 2014 Cecil Aronowitz Competition. Born in London in 1995, Ridout studied at the Royal Academy of Music graduating with the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence. He completed his Masters at the Kronberg Academy with Nobuko Imai in 2019 and 2018 took part in Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World program. He plays on a viola by Peregrino di Zanetto c. 1565-75 on loan from a generous patron of Beare’s International Violin Society.
