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Enescu’s “Eroica

Bucharest
Grand Palace Hall
09/04/2005 -  
Enescu : Rhapsody no. 1 in A major op. 11
Beethoven : Triple concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra in C major op. 56
Enescu : Symphony no. 1 in E flat major op. 9

Dmitri Sitkovetsky (violin), Alexander Rudin (cello), Brigitte Engerer (piano)
“George Enescu” Philharmonic, Horia Andreescu (conductor)


“George Enescu" International Festival and Competition
- XVII-th Edition, September 4 th- 20 th, 2005, Bucharest, Romania -


festivalenescu.ro



The Enescu Year 2005, commemorates half of a century from the death of the Romanian composer, violinist, pianist and conductor, one of the most complex musical personalities of his time. A special Edition of the „George Enescu” Festival and Competition took place in September in Bucharest. For 17 days, an important part of the musical world has given a traditional rendez-vous in the capital city of Romania. The Festival's Honorary President and Artistic Director was Ioan Holender, director of the Vienna State Opera.

Horia Andreescu's baton and “George Enescu” Philharmonic Orchestra opened the Festival with the familiar sounds of the Romanian Rhapsody no. 1. It was the first piece of a program which reproduced Enescu's symphonic works presented at the inaugural edition, in 1958.
Horia Andreescu's approach to the rhapsody is refined, purified, cleaned of sentimental effusions... a distillation of the essential. The tempi are almost slow, inviting to reflection, preparing the contrast ing bars and bringing the interpretation straight toward one's mind and heart. It is a rather unusual vision, nevertheless valid and deeply personal.

The Triple concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra was played by Brigitte Engerer, Dmitri Sitkovetsky and Alexander Rudin, a gifted trio who constantly rose in homogeneity throughout the performance culminating with the flaming final, as imagined by the conductor. The tone of the violinist, his virtuosity - together with that of the cellist – were remarkable. As an encore, the three performers brought to the audience a captivating version of Fritz Kreisler’s Little March.
The second part of the concert could be considered as a reference concept for Enescu's Symphony no. 1 in E flat major op. 9. After the famous opening bars, which – in time – have become the signature logo of the Festival (regretfully, the brass section was too "shy", euphemistically speaking), the composer's musical waves emerged energetically from Andreescu’s baton. Andreescu certainly is the possessor of a vision of grandeur, of major vistas. In the first movement of the “Eroica", Enescu's music breathed imposingly, statuary like. The echoes of the winds, the murmur of cellos brought a second movement full of melancholy, caressing senses like a romantic perfume. The conductor structures his interpretation gradually, fluidly, with good perception of the musical peaks. The mellifluent themes are born softly, rise and then gradually become diffuse - a reading which was relevant also in the third part of the symphony. This movement was of a really high dynamism! Horia Andreescu is a complex orchestra conductor, with a knowledge of the artistic architecture that has no secrets to him. The super-challenging final composed by Enescu is interpreted as a major culmination of the musical edifice, built over the entire score attentively and precisely, as a diamond cutter embraces a lovely precious stone.

At the public's request, Horia Andreescu and the Bucharest Philharmonic completed the circle of Enescu's most popular works, presenting the Romanian Rhapsody no. 2 in D major with the same elegant combining of the motifs, the same restful peace springing from whisperlike melodies, like the old Romanian popular love songs.




Costin Popa

 

 

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