“TRANSILVANIA” PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA OF CLUJ – under the conductorship and artistic directorship of Antonin Ciolan (one of Nikisch’ s pupils), the ensemble founded in 1955 has developed into a performant orchestra which has attracted many reputed conductors – Erich Bergel (1966-1972), who has become Honorary Artistic Director in 1994, Emil Simon (1996-2000), who was also appointed Artistic Director for many years, and Cristian Mandeal (1980-1987), whose cooperation with the Cluj ensemble has continued on a regular basis to this day after his engagement with the Philharmonic of Bucharest. The orchestra has made tours across Europe, being invited at prestigious festivals in Lucerne, Turin, Warsaw, Istanbul, Strasbourg, Berlin, Bratislava, Interlake, Bucharest. From 1965 it has organised its own festival – “Cluj Musical Autumn”. It has collaborated with leading conductors, amongst whom John Barbirolli, John Pritchard, Anatoly Fistoulari, Kyrill Kondrashin, André Jolivet, Carlo Zecchi, Witold Lutoslawsky, Leopold Hager, Kurt Masur, Valeri Gergiev, Janos Ferencsik, George Georgescu, and Horia Andreescu, as well as with such renowned soloists as Monique Haas, Sviatoslav Richter, Ruggiero Ricci, Friedrich Gulda, Annie Fischer, Aldo Ciccolini, Dmitry Bashkirov, Lazar Berman, Jean Pierre Rampal, Bruno Leonardo Gelber, José Carreras, Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu, Silvia Marcovici, Radu Lupu, Valentin Gheorghiu, and Dan Grigore. More than 120 recordings have been made for Electrecord which reflect part of its extremely broad repertoire, including the complete cycles of Brahms’ and Bruckner’s works under Cristian Mandeal (some of them having appeared on Olympia record company), Vivaldi’s Quatro Stagione, French music, Romanian music, and many others.
