Bucharest, August 13, 2021
George Enescu International Festival invites the general public and organizations of all kinds – public and private – to take a 5-minute break from their daily rhythms on August 19, George Enescu’s 140th birth anniversary, to honor him without big words but instead with what the Maestro loved most – music – and in the way he lived his own life: with modesty and generosity towards his fellow human beings.
The project prepared by the George Enescu Festival for August 19 is titled The Sound of Love and aims to make room for the healing and unifying power of music in a public space saturated with empty rhetoric, ignoring too often what truly matters, and marked by pandemic-fueled aggression – on the day when we celebrate 140 years since George Enescu’s birth.
So, on August 19 at 12:15 PM (EEST), the Festival will publish on its website, at this link, the recording of George Enescu’s Ballade, in the unique performance of famous violinist David Garrett, alongside Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of the late Gianluigi Gelmetti, as presented in the 2015 Enescu Festival. The recording can be streamed from the website by those who wish to take part in the experience or can be made available free of charge to organizations who wish to join the project, for simultaneous broadcasting on August 19 at 12:15 PM (EEST). The duration of the recording is 5 minutes.
“This project is inspired by the credo and character of George Enescu, who we, at the Enescu Festival, believe deserves to be a role model for Romanians and beyond. Enescu lived for music and found in music the supreme expression of life and love. He was generous and attentive to other people but, at the same time, a man of boundless modesty. This is why, in a context where the pandemic and everyday challenges often leave us feeling disheartened, it’s important to find the right direction. Through The Sound of Love, we want to bring into everyone’s life not only the grace of an encounter with George Enescu but also the perspective that, no matter how great the challenges, we can find our direction through music and authentic values, and when we need reference points we can trust Enescu and his creation. The most eloquent of Enescu’s quotes for this project and for what we are doing at the 2021 Enescu Festival, as we mark the history of 25 editions made with love, is: To create is to love – for music is love or nothing at all,” declared for the press Oana Marinescu, Communication Director, Enescu Festival.
Those who wish to enjoy 5 minutes of the Sound of Love and generously share this joy in the public space have various options, as follows:
- Private individuals can access this link on Thursday, August 19, starting at 12:15 PM (EEST), to listen to George Enescu’s Ballade. If they want to share this experience with others, they can pick up images on social media, under #SunetulIubirii, #Enescu140ani, and tag the Enescu Festival, open the windows of their cars if they are in traffic, so that the music can be heard, invite their friends and colleagues to take a break from their daily rhythms and recharge their batteries with the Sound of Love.
- Media organizations – TV and radio stations, online publications – are kindly asked to broadcast the 5 minutes of Enescu’s music on their own channels (radio, TV, online) simultaneously with the Festival at 12:15 PM. The Festival offers free of charge the right to play this recording for the project on August 19 and, if solicited, can also provide a recording to TV and radio stations.
- Public institutions and companies are kindly asked to broadcast George Enescu’s Ballade on their own internal channels to their employees and, as far as possible, to the general public. Any linked event organized by an institution/company/organization may be shared on social media platforms under #SunetulIubirii, #Enescu140ani, and a tag to the Enescu Festival, so that it can also be picked up on the Festival’s channels.
“If media outlets agree to create this 5-minute slot for Enescu’s music in their schedule on August 19, at 12:15 PM, the message to the general public would be extraordinarily powerful and would certainly do more than any speech. This is why we are asking the media to get involved in this project and we are providing them with the resources we have – music, information, images – to reach their audience in the most relevant way possible,” Oana Marinescu explained.
Further Information
The 2021 George Enescu International Festival is scheduled to take place between August 28 and September 26, 2021, with an exceptional musical program, sustained by over 3,500 international and Romanian artists for a record duration of 4 weeks, with measures in place to reduce potential health risks for audiences, artists, organizers, and journalists.
The full Program can be found on the festivalenescu.ro website.
Information on the purchase procedure and conditions of access is available on the Festival website, under the Tickets section. It is still possible that changes are made to the Program due to the pandemic. Access to the concert halls will only be allowed if sanitary conditions are observed; face masks will be mandatory indoors at all times.
