Programme of the Enescu Festival 2017. Subscriptions go on sale on December 5th, 2016

The 2017 edition of the George Enescu International Festival (September 2-24) brings to Bucharest and to seven other cities in the country over 3,000 of the most appreciated foreign and Romanian artists in over 80 events. The theme of the 2017 edition will be “light”, which allows the audience, by the way it falls or is projected, to discover new perspectives and to find new meanings, even in seemingly familiar experiences.

***

Enescu Festival in a new light!

Superstars of classical music – the pianist Lang Lang and the tenor Jonas Kaufmann –, works by George Enescu, multimedia projections for the first time in history and important contemporary composers coming to Bucharest invite the audience to discover new perspectives on classical music in the 2017 edition

Subscriptions go on sale on December 5th. Complete details below!

With a new first-class international directing team – Zubin Mehta, Honorary President and Vladimir Jurowski, Artistic Director, in 2017, the Festival will put the music and creation of George Enescu in a new light, as well as classical music in general. As part of this endeavor, the Festival will put technology to the service of classical music and creativity, presenting famous works in a new approach; it will put contemporary music at the forefront, inviting to Bucharest some of the best-known composers today for the first time; it will give the audience the chance to enjoy a record number of works by George Enescu (37) – two of which will be presented at the Festival for the first time in history – and it will tune mathematics to the sound of music, inside Creative Bucharest.

Multimedia projections will open new dimensions within three concerts with works of symbolic importance: the Opening Concert of the 2017 edition of the Festival, with the opera Oedipe by George Enescu in its concert version, performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of conductor Vladimir Jurowski, with the multimedia director Carmen Lidia Vidu, Mathis der Maler, multimedia director Carmen Lidia Vidu and The Damnation of Faust, with Petrikă Ionescu as multimedia director.

CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS AND MATHEMATICS

The 2017 edition has an absolute novelty, namely the series of concerts 21^st Century Music, which will also include the International Composers’ Forum, where some of the most important contemporary composers of the world can take part in discussions with the general public. Another important moment, an absolute premiere for Romania, is Imaginary – an interactive exhibition of mathematics and music, part of the Creative Bucharest project in the Enescu Festival 2017. In Imaginary, the audience will have the chance to interact with various works of art, with 3D sculptures, with installations specially designed by artists and mathematicians, which will depict the way mathematics can create some of the most beautiful works of art. At the same time, the international exhibition Imaginary illustrates the unique manner that mathematics and music can complete each other, bringing together, for the same creative purposes, mathematicians and musicians. Organized by the Freie Universität Berlin and the Imaginary Non-Profit Organization, in collaboration with Università di Genova, IMAR and the University of Bucharest, the exhibition has reached 50 countries and had over 2.5 million visitors so far.

 CLASSICAL MUSIC STARS COME TO BUCHAREST

International classical music stars will come for the first time to Bucharest in 2017. They will be joined by top orchestras such as Orchestra Scala di Milano, Orchestra Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Münchner Philharmoniker or London Philharmonic Orchestra.

First-class conductors including Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Riccardo Chailly, Michail Pletnev and Vladimir Jurowski will also be present. As part of his program in the 2017 edition of the Festival, the renowned Antonio Pappano will conduct the Symphony No. 3 in C Major Op. 21 with Choir by George Enescu, thus offering the audience another premiere: Orchestra Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia performing Enescu. In addition, the French National Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach and with Truls Mørk as soloist will perform the Symphonie Concertante pour Cello by George Enescu, a composition that the famous orchestra has also chosen to open the 2017 season in Paris. The Czech Philharmonic, under the baton of Jiří Bělohlávek, will also be present at the Festival for the first time in 2017, with a program including works by Brahms and Martinů.

Making the 100 most influential people list by Time magazine, in 2009, and the winner of an Echo Klassik award in 2013, the Chinese-born pianist Lang Lang, a true star of international classical music, will give a recital at the Enescu Festival 2017 for the first time. Present on some of the most important opera stages in the world, the tenor Jonas Kaufmann will also be part of the 2017 program, for the first time. Another premiere will be the performances of mezzosoprano Magdalena Kožená, countertenor Philippe Jaroussky with the Arpeggiata Ensemble, the pianist Daniil Trifonov, the conductor Riccardo Chailly, the baritones Thomas Hampson and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, as well as the soprano Olga Peretyatko. Another pianist with an ascending international career, the young and brilliant Khatia Buniatishvili, will delight the audience of the Enescu Festival in 2017. She will be joined by the famous trumpet player Tine Thing Helseth, another first-timer at the festival.

Moreover, the famous Indian composer and instrumentalist Anoushka Shankar will perform at the 2017 edition of the Festival for the first time.

Les Musiciens du Louvre, under the baton of Marc Minkowski, will bring Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte to the stage of the Athenaeum, and the opera Mathis der Maler by Hindemith will be performed for the first time at the Festival in its concert version by the National Radio Orchestra and the Academic Radio Choir, conducted by Lawrence Foster. Another novelty will be the famous opera by Berlioz, The Damnation of Faust, performed by the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir under the baton of conductor John Nelson.

Ensemble en Chordais, Ensemble Constantinopole and the Anton Pann will bring The Musical Voyages of Marco Polo to the Festival audience for the first time, a rare selection of old works, collected from the folklore of various countries by the Greek composer and musician Kyriakos Kalaitzidis. The concert will be accompanied by creative multimedia projections.

One of the most promising young Romanian artists, acclaimed on great international stages and the winner of the famous Tchaikovsky Competition at the young age of 21, the Romanian cellist Andrei Ioniță will perform at the 2017 edition of the Enescu Festival under the baton of the famous Valery Gergiev, with the Münchner Philharmoniker.

TOP ROMANIAN FIGURES IN ONE OF THE MOST SUBSTANTIAL SELECTIONS

As an absolute premiere, Bucharest will welcome remarkable contemporary composers including Sir James MacMillan, Rodion Shchedrin, Jörg Widmann, Iain Bell Nimrod Borenstein, Sven Helbig, Zygmund Krauze, Rolf Martinsson, Magnus Lindberg, Helmut Lachenmann, Vladimir Cosma and Thomas Larcher. In a new series of the Enescu Festival, 21^st Century Music, the audience can listen to their works in novel interpretations, and during the International Composers’ Forum they can attend debates on topical music issues.

The violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and the legendary pianist Martha Argerich confirmed their return to the Festival and they will perform in the 2017 edition with renowned orchestras including Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Some of the other guest artists of the 2017 edition are: Maxim Vengerov, Nikolaj Znaider, Leonidas Kavakos, Joshua Bell, Renaud Capuçon, David Garrett, Peter Frank Zimmermann, Misha Maisky, Gautier Capuçon, Nikolai Lugansky and Boris Berezovski.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa9cfqzKcms

The exceptional international artists will be joined by top Romanian figures in one of the most substantial selections: George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, National Radio Orchestra, the orchestras of Cluj, Iași, Timișoara, Bacău and Brașov, the conductors Cristian Mandeal, Horia Andreescu, Tiberiu Soare, Adrian Petrescu, Cristian Oroșanu, Cristian Lupeș and the soloists Ruxandra Donose, Vlad Budoiu, Cosmin Ifrim, Adrian Sâmpetrean, Roxana Constantinescu, Szabo Balint, Gabriela Iștoc and Teodor Ilincăi.

Winners of the Enescu Competition will also take the stage of the Enescu Festival, together with important international and national orchestras: Valentin Răduțiu, Mihai Ritivoiu, Viniciu Moroianu, Victoria Vassilenko, Zlatomir Fung, Luiza Borac, Josu de Solaun, Ștefan Tarara, Eun-Sun Hong, Vassilis Varvaressos and Dong Hyun Kim.

There will be a total number of 12 concerts in the 2017 edition of the Festival in the rest of the country, in cities such as Iași, Brașov, Cluj, Timișoara, Bacău, Ploiești and Sibiu.  

INFORMATION ON SUBSCRIPTIONS AND TICKETS

Subscriptions for the Enescu Festival 2017 will go on sale on December 5, 2016, at 10.00 a.m. Individual tickets will go on sale on February 16, 2017, at 10.00 a.m.

Subscriptions and tickets will be sold through EVENTIM, online on the website www.eventim.ro, and in the network of EVENTIM stores in the entire country (Germanos, Orange, Vodafone, Diverta, Carrefour, Humanitas and Cărturești bookshops, OMV stations), at the EVENTIM offices in Bucharest and in the country, as well as on the EVENTIM websites abroad and in international EVENTIM networks.

Due to the timing advance and the dynamics in organization entailed by an international event, organizational changes may occur until the festival. For real-time details, we recommend the public to check the website of the Enescu Festival – www.festivalenescu.ro, as well as the facebook page of the Festival and to constantly check the information in the pre-program against those added on the Festival website in real time. 

SUBSCRIPTIONS

1. Subscription — TYPE A— valid for all concerts in the series “GREAT ORCHESTRAS OF THE WORLD” at the Grand Palace Hall – 23 concerts

• 1^st Category            RON 2800 (MSD – music stamp duty included)
• 2^nd Category           RON 2200 (MSD included)
• 3^rd Category           RON 1700 (MSD included)
• 4^th Category           RON 1200 (MSD included)
• Retirees, Pupils, Students Category    RON 900 (MSD included)

 

1. Subscription – TYPE B — valid for all concerts in the series “RECITALS AND CHAMBER MUSIC” (Romanian Athenaeum, Auditorium Hall) – 22 concerts at the Athenaeum + 7 concerts at the Auditorium Hall

• 1^st category           RON 2700 (MSD included)
• 2^nd category        RON 2100 (MSD included)

 

1. Subscription – TYPE C – valid for all concerts in the series “BY MIDNIGHT” (Romanian Athenaeum) – 13 concerts

• 1^st category           RON 1600 (MSD included)
• 2^nd category  RON 1200 (MSD included)

1. Subscription – TYPE D – valid for all concerts in the series “21^ST CENTURY MUSIC” (Mihail Jora Hall – Radio Hall) – 10 concerts

• 1^st category            RON 300 (MSD included)
• 2^nd category  RON 200 (MSD included)

INDIVIDUAL TICKETS

Series “GREAT ORCHESTRAS” (Grand Palace Hall)

• 1^st category        RON 180 (MSD included)
• 2^nd category        RON 140 (MSD included)
• 3^rd category        RON 110 (MSD included)
• 4^th category       RON 80 (MSD included)

 

Series “RECITALS AND CHAMBER MUSIC” (Romanian Athenaeum, Auditorium Hall)

Fort the concerts at the Athenaeum:

• 1^st category         RON 180 (MSD included)
• 2^nd category        RON 140 (MSD included)

For the concerts at the Auditorium Hall:

• 1^st category       RON 50 (MSD included)
• 2^nd category        RON 30 (MSD included)

 

Series “BY MIDNIGHT” (Romanian Athenaeum)

• 1^st category         RON 180 (MSD included)
• 2^nd category        RON 140 (MSD included)

 

 

Series “21^ST CENTURY MUSIC” (Mihail Jora Hall – Radio Hall)

• 1^st category         RON 50 (MSD included)

• 2^nd category        RON 30 (MSD included)

Translation provided by Biroul de Traduceri Champollion.