A dense Festival programme for the day of 19th of September, with six important events on the agenda.
From 10:00 A.M., during The International Composers Forum you can watch live the discussions with contemporary musicians attending the festival on Enescu Festival’s website (https://www.festivalenescu.ro/live/) or directly in the Forum hall at The Bucharest National University of Music. The composers Mark-Anthony Turnage (UK), Colin Matthews (UK), John Woolrich (UK) and Charlotte Bray (UK) will talk about their poetic art, their artistic belief and their personal perception of the contemporary musical universe. The moderator of the session is the composer and professor Dan Dediu.
The first concert of the day, from the Music of the 21st century series, takes place at Radio Hall, starting at 3:00 P.M. There will be a performance byBritten Sinfonia, conducted by Andrew Gourlay. The soloist will be Vikram Sedona, playing theviolin, winner of the “George Enescu” International Competition 2018.
In the programme: Reflections in time – by Charlotte Bray, Through the light of the flowers – by Ulpiu Vlad, Concerto for violin – by John Woolrich, a piece at first audition by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Spiralling – by Colin Matthews.
Britten Sinfonia is a British ensemble, created in 1992 in Cambridge. It established an international reputation through highly virtuous performances and the pioneering work it has done in choosing inspired repertoires, defined by bold and intelligent connections between contemporary musical pieces and music created over 400 years ago.Britten Sinfonia stands out also because it does not have a principal conductor or artistic director, instead choosing to collaborate with a range of international guest artists from across the musical spectrum as suited to each particular project.Britten Sinfonia has released records on the Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion, Sound Circus and EMI labels, among others. The orchestra’s recordings have been Grammy nominated, received a Gramophone Award and an ECHO/Klassik Recording Award, and most recently was awarded a BBC Music Magazine Award for its recording of James MacMillan’s Oboe Concerto.
The programme provides an overview of the British contemporary music, bringing on the Festival’s stage a selection of the best-known living composers.
The composer Charlotte Bray (born in 1982) has emerged as a distinctive and outstanding talent of her generation, due to her exhilarating music, inherently vivid, and richly expressive with lyrical intensity. Bray has been championed by numerous world-class ensembles and orchestras, including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Symphony Orchestra, the CBSO Youth Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and large-scale pieces for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Her work has featured at the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Tanglewood, Aix-en-Provence, Verbier, West Cork and the Copenhagen Summer Festival.
The Romanian composer, musicologist and professor Ulpiu Vlad (born in 1945)is a representative of his generation of Romanian musicians which asserted itself in ’70s -’80s. Vlad’s compositions have a dreamy tonewith a lyrical intensity, using emotions into a neo-romantic key and the improvisation of folkloric sources. Vald Ulpiu was the student of Anatol Vieru. He followed advanced studies at “Santa Cecilia” Academy of Rome, in Borovetzand Amsterdam. He has received many grants and awards for his work. Vlad Ulpiu composed in almost all genres, including chamber, symphonic, choral and vocal-symphonic music, and even electronic music.
John Woolrich (born in 1954) is a British composer whose music is frequently performed. He is a highly creative teacher and an original programmer.And all these make him an important figure in British musical life. He has a practical approach to music making: he has founded a group, the Composers Ensemble, and a festival, Hoxton New Music Days. He has also a successful collaboration with St John’s Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (where he was Artistic Associate, in 2002). He is interested in the art of creative transcription, supporting re-composition of some classical pieces of Monteverdi, Mozart, Corelli, Berio, Schumann and Beethoven.
Mark-Anthony Turnage (born in 1960) is one of the most appreciated British composers of his generation. He studied with Oliver Knussen and John Lambert, in Londra and later with Gunther Schuller, in Tanglewood.Turnage’s works skillfully blend classical and jazz idioms, modernism and tradition.He was Composer in Association with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, English Opera, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His music has been championed bySimon Rattle, Andrew Davis, Vladimir Jurowski, Daniel Harding, Antonio Pappano, Andris Nelsons, VassilyPetrenko, Oliver Knussenand Leonard Slatkin. He collaborated with jazz musicians, including John Scofield, Peter Erskine and Joe Lovano, with the soloists Håkan Hardenberger, Christian Lindberg, Christian Tetzlaffand Marc-André Hamelin and with Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta and Nash Ensemble. His music has been recorded by Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics, Chandos, LPO și LSO Live.
Colin Matthewswas born in London in 1946. He studied with Arnold Whittall and Nicholas Maw. In the 1970s he was assistant to Benjamin Britten and worked for many years with Imogen Holst and Deryck Cooke. Over four decades his music has ranged from solo piano music through five string quartets and many ensemble and orchestral works.
He was Associate Composer with the London Symphony Orchestra between 1992 and 1999, and Composer-in-Association with the Hallé from 2001-10, now their Composer Emeritus. Among his famous orchestral pieces are Reflected Images, composed for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Berceuse for Dresden for the New York Philharmonic and Turning Point for the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
The programme of the day continues with one of the most expected moments of the Festival – the first presence on Bucharest’s stages ofthe Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard. She will perform in the oratorio of Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, by Arthur Honegger. The representation will take place at theRomanian Athenaeum, at04.30 P.M.The music will be performed by Orchestre National De Lille under the leadership of Alexandre Bloch, accompanied by the Choir Of The “George Enescu” Philharmonic, conducted by Iosif Ion Prunner and Children Choir of the Romanian National Radio Society, conducted by Răzvan Rădos.
In distribution: Marion Cotillard – Jeanne D’arc (spoken), Georges Gay – Frère Dominique (spoken), Hélène Guilmette – La Vierge, Une Voix (soprano), Gabrielle Philiponet – Marguerite (soprano), Marie Karall – Catherine (contralto), Cornel Frey – Porcus, Une Voix, Héraut I, Le Clerc (tenor), Philippe-Nicolas Martin – Une Voix, Héraut II (basse) / Un autre paysan (spoken), Mathias Zakhar – Héraut III, L’Ane, Bedford, Jean de Luxembourg, Heurtebise, Un Paysan (spoken), Corentin Hot – L’Appariteur, Regnault de Chartres, Guillaume de Flavy, Perrot, Un Prêtre(spoken).
The drama takes place during the heroine’s last minutes on the stake, with flashbacks to her trial and her younger days. Honegger entitled his work a dramatic oratorio, adding speaking roles and actors. The work has an important part for the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument used in orchestras.
Claudel’s dramatic frame provided Honegger with a space – between heaven and earth, past and present – where he could mix styles from the popular to the sublime. A hybrid work: partly oratorio and partly opera, Honegger uses all his musical means, monody, harmony and counterpoint to build towards sculpted blocks of sound.
In the section Mozartweek in Residence, from 18:00, at Excelsior Theatre, will take place another recitative in other dramatic register. There will be the representation of Briefe & Music, From the correspondence between Leopold and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1779 – 1782). The letters exchenged between Mozart and his father, Leopold Mozart will constitute the framework in which Rolando Villazón will represent the recitative part, accompanied bythe violinist Emmanuel Tjeknavorian and piano player Maximilian Kromer. The work includescompositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Sonata no. 25 in F major KV 377 (first part), Violin Sonata no. 26 in B flat major KV 378 (second part),Violin Sonata no. 24 in F major KV 376 (third part), Violin Sonata no. 27 in G major KV 379 (first part), Violin Sonata no. 28 in E flat major KV 380.
The programme of the day continues with the concert of ST. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, under the leadership of Romanian conductor Christian Badea, together with Choir Of The “George Enescu” Philharmonic, conducted by CiprianȚuțu, from 7:30 P.M., at Grand Palace Hall. The concert’s soloist will be the violinist Vadim Repin.
In the programme: George Enescu “Isis” Poem (1923, posthumously completed by Pascal Bentoiu), Shostakovich Violin concerto no. 1 in A minor op. 77; Dvořák Symphony no. 9 in E minor op. 95, “From the New World”.
“The most perfect violinist I’ve ever heard” said Menuhin about Vadim Repin. Fiery passion with impeccable technique, poetry and sensitivity are Vadim Repin’s trademarks which established him in musical elite of the world’s best instrumentalists. Born in Siberia in 1971, VadimRepin won the gold medal in all age categories in the Wienawski Competition at only eleven and gave his recital debuts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.At the age of fourteen, he made his debuts in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin, Helsinki. A year later he debuted at Carnegie Hall. In 1987 Mr. Repin became the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Reine Elisabeth Concours violin competition.
Since then, Vadim Repin has performed with the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors. Other recent highlights have been tours with the London Symphony Orchestraand Valery Gergiev, NHK Orchestra and Dutoit; a tour of Australia with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski; and acclaimed premières in London, Philadelphia, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Salle Pleyel in Paris and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw of the violin concerto written for him by James MacMillan, culminating in a BBC Prom at the sold out Royal Albert Hall.
Vadim Repin recorded the great Russian violin concerti by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky on Warner Classics. For Deutsche Grammophon he recorded the Beethoven Violin Concerto, the Brahms Violin Concerto and Double Concerto (TrulsMørk, cello) with the Gewandhaus Orchester, the Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov trios with Mischa Maisky and Lang Lang (which won the Echo Classic) and works by Grieg, Janacek and César Franck with Nikolai Lugansky, which won the 2011 BBC Music Award.
In 2010 he received the Victoire d’Honneur, France’s most prestigious musical award for a lifetime’s dedication to music, and became Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Following master classes and concerts in Beijing in December 2014 he was awarded an honorary professorship of the Central Conservatory of Music, and in 2015 an honorary professorship of the Shanghai Conservatory.
Last season Vadim Repin performed in Vilnius, Prague, Vienna, Paris, Ankara Erevan, Barcelona, Madrid and Tokyo. He also had performances in the United States were followed by concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, Cardiff, Berlin, and a return to Japan to celebrate the Tchaikovsky centenary. Vadim Repin plays on the 1733 ‘Rode’ violin by Stradivari.
The programme closes with the representation of „Aci, Galatea and Polifemo” opera by Georg Friedrich Händel, at Romanian Athenaeum, from 10:30 P.M. Under the leadership of conductor Ruben Jais, there will be a performance by laBarocca ensemble. In the distributon: soprano Roberta Mameli, mezzo-soprano Sonia Prina and the bass Luigi de Donato.
LaBarocca is an Italian ensemble specialized in the performances of the Baroque Age.The Ensemble laBarocca was founded in 2008 thanks to Luigi Corbani and Ruben Jais, respectively General Manager and Artistic Director of the Orchestra Verdi of Milan. Since its foundation it has performed at the Milan Auditorium di Milano “Fondazione Cariplo”. The orchestra combines performances in Milan with tours throughout Italy and abroad, so as to spread the beauty of baroque music beyond its home city. The laBarocca’s repertoire includes a wide range of works from the early Baroque (among which Vespro della Beata Vergine by Monteverdi and Davidis Pugna et Victoria by Alessandro Scarlatti) to classical works of the 18thcentury. G. F. Handel’s Messiah, J. S. Bach‘s Christmas and Easter Oratorios, performed every year, have now become traditional events for the city of Milan during the related festivities. The instrumental music also represents an important part of laBarocca’s repertoire, including the Concerts of Antonio Vivaldi, the Concerts of Brandemburgice and the suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 2011, laBarocca approaches for the first time the opera repertoire, performing, in a concertante form, the opera Rinaldo, by Georg Friedrich Händel.
“Aci, Galatea e Polifemo”, by Georg Friedrich Händel, is a dramatic cantata, first performed at Naples, in 1708, being commissioned for the wedding festivities of the Duke of Alvito. It is a cantata for three voices, an opera full of complex and vivacious arias, which tells the story of lovers Aciand Galatea, and of the jealous giant Polifemo, whose impossible love for Galatea triggers the tragedy. The music varies from idyllical notes to profound, dark arias, faithfully illustrating the characters’ emotions.
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About “George Enescu” International Festival
Having reached its 24th edition, George Enescu International Festival will take place between 31 August and 22 September 2019. In the Bucharest concert halls we will see over 2,500 of the most valuable musicians of the world, coming from 50 countries, and 84 concerts and recitals will be presented. This year’s edition of the festival has a total number of 34 figures coming to Romania for the first time: 25 artists, including Marion Cotillard, Kirill Petrenko, Mitsuko Uchida, and nine world-class orchestras.
The 2019 edition of George Enescu International Festival awaits its audience in the Palace Hall, at the Romanian Athenaeum, the Radio Hall and the Small Palace Hall, to concerts and recitals grouped under six sections: “Great Orchestras of the World”, “By Midnight Concerts”, “Recitals and Chamber Music”, “21st Century Music”, “Mozart Week in Residence” and “International Composers’ Forum”. Concerts and events will also be organized in the Festival Square, along with conferences, record releases and book launches, and extraordinary shows.
For more details: https://www.festivalenescu.ro/
