The George Enescu Festival (also known as George Enescu International Festival and Competition), held in honor of the celebrated Romanian composer George Enescu, is the biggest classical music festival and classical international competition held in Romania and one of the biggest in Eastern Europe. The festival proposal was authored by Andrei TudorPROECT pentru un festival muzical internațional "ENESCU" [Project proposal for an "ENESCU" international music festival] in 1955. Enescu's close associate George Georgescu organized the first festival in 1958; highlights included a performance of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins with Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh as soloists and a staging of Enescu's sole opera, Œdipe, with Constantin Silvestri conducting.Alain Chotil-Fani: Danube to Bucharest
The official opening day of the Enescu Festival took place on 4 September 1958, merely three years after George Enescu's death. Among the music world's personalities that were present for this first edition of the festival were performers such as David Oistrakh, Halina Czerny-Stefanka, Nadia Boulanger, Monique Haas, Iacov Zak and Claudio Arrau, and conductors such as Sir John Barbirolli, Carlo Felice Cillario and Carlo Zecchi. On 22 September of the same year, the national premiere of George Enescu's lyrical tragedy "Oedipe" took place, starring a young David Ohanesian in the lead role. This role was going to mark out the rest of his career as a soloist (conductor: Constantin Silvestri, Directed by Jean Ranzescu, Scenery: Roland Laub).
Violinist, teacher, conductor and composer, worldwide known for his lush opera composition Oedipe, George Enescu presented his first work as a composer with the Collonne Orchestra in Paris, 1898; he also performed as a conductor at prestigious Carnegie Hall (NY). Enescu was also the teacher of one of the greatest violinists of the past century – Lord Yehudi Menuhin. Their bond was so strong that in 1995, Menuhin accepted the invitation to come to Romania to open the George Enescu International Festival. Menuhin also accepted to be the President of Honor of the Enescu Festival in 1998, though his schedule as a soloist was full up to 2003.
Today, an average of around 20 works by Romanian composer George Enescu are interpreted in the Enescu Festival each edition. The 2015 edition of the Enescu Festival (30 August – 20 September 2015 Bucharest) brings on stage interpretations from Enescu's works by record-breaking German violinist David Garrett, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Pulitzer Prize for Music), or Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. Highlights of this edition of the Festival also include violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Symphony Orchestra.
The concerts are held in three different venues in Bucharest, Iași and Sibiu. The 2007 presentations ended with a performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana before an audience of over 4,000 at the Sala Palatului.
The competition portion of the Festival lasts about a week, and it consists of three different categories: composition (118 participants in 2007), piano (44 in 2007), and violin (41 in 2007), each a record number of participants.
In the 2005 and 2007 presentations a daily open-air concert was added to the festival program. It is known as the Festival Piazza and features 3½ hours of classical music, in addition to movies about the life of George Enescu.
History
1958 - First edition The official opening day of the festival took place on 4 September 1958, merely three years after George Enescu's death, thus marking the official debut of the most important international musical manifestation hosted by Romania. The festival was meant to occur once every three years, being accompanied by an international competition, that was interrupted after the 5th edition, only to be reintroduced in the festival in 1991.
Among the music world's personalities that were present for this first edition of the show were performers such as Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrah, Halina Czerny-Stefanka, Nadia Boulanger, Monique Haas, Iacov Zak and Claudio Arrau, and conductors such as Sir John Barbirolli, Carlo Felice Cillario and Carlo Zecchi.
On 22 September of the same year, the national premiere of George Enescu's lyrical tragedy "Oedipe" took place, starring a young David Ohanesian in the lead role. This role was going to mark out the rest of his career as a soloist (conductor: Constantin Silvestri, Directed by: Jean Ranzescu, Scenery: Roland Laub).
1961 - Second edition Compared to the first one, the second edition paid much more attention to repertoires from the lyrical theatre and vocal art. This initiative was supported by several renowned soloists such as Dimitr Uzunov, Ivan Petrov and Anton Dermota. Five lyrical spectacles were presented by the Bucharest Theatre of Opera and Ballet: "Oedipe" by George Enescu, "Boris Godunov" by Modest Mussorgski, "Fidelio" by Ludwig van Beethoven, "Othello" by Giuseppe Verdi and "O Noapte Furtunoasă" by Paul Constantinescu, alongside two ballet acts in the forms of "La Piata" by Mihai Jora and "Priculiciul" by Zeno Vancea.
For the first time, there were opened three new concert halls: the Grand Hall of the Palace, the Small Hall of the Palace (now the Auditorium Hall) and the Concert Studio of the Romanian Radiotelevision (now the Mihail Jora Concert Studio).
In this edition participated the following: Sviatoslav Richter, Aldo Ciccolini, Leonid Kogan, Henryk Szeryng, Valentin Gheorghiu, Ştefan Gheorghiu, Vladimir Orlov, Radu Aldulescu, Ion Voicu, Sir John Barbirolli (his second time at the George Enescu Festival), Lorin Maazel, Ghenadi Rojdestvenski with George Georgescu, Mircea Cristescu, Mircea Basarab, Iosif Conta and Mihai Brediceanu.
1964 – The Third Edition The third edition debuted with a regrettable event – the death of the conductor George Georgescu, a few days after the beginning of the international event, depriving the Romanian stage of an indisputable artist.
The success of the previous editions was reconfirmed in 1964 mainly by the presence of exceptional international artists such as: Arthur Rubinstein, Henryk Szering, Gaspar Cassado, Monique Haas, Miroslav Ceangalovici, André Navarra, André Cluytens, Herbert von Karajan, Zubin Mehta and John Pritchard. Beside them there were also Romanian artists such as Valentin and Ştefan Gheorghiu, Ştefan Ruha, Ion Voicu, Radu Aldulescu, Vladimir Orlov, Mircea Basarab and Mihai Brediceanu.
It was an edition of first auditions, among the most important being the interpretations of the poem Vox Maris (by the Radiotelevision Orchestra, conducted by Iosif Conta) and the Piano Quartet no. 1, both signed by George Enescu.
1967 – 4th Edition During the 1967 festival, a great importance was given again to promoting both Enescian music and Romanian contemporary creations. It was one of the editions when the highest number of George Enescu's musical pieces was auditioned (12) and when 18 Romanian composers were included in the concert programs.
This edition also brought the first world audition of the Enescian creation: "Trio in A minor for violin, cello and piano". Other important first auditions were: "String Quartet No. 2" by Mihail Jora, "String Quartet No. 7" by Wilhelm Berger and "Scene nocturne" by Anatol Vieru.
Besides the presence of Romanian orchestras and artists (Valentin Gheorghiu, Ion Voicu, Radu Aldulescu, Mircea Basarab, Constantin Bugeanu and Antonin Ciolan, the "George Enescu" Philharmonic Orchestra, the Radiotelevision Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra in Cluj, the Madrigal Choir, the "George Enescu" Quintet or the "Muzica Quartet"), international performers or ensembles were also present, such as Los Angeles Philharmonic, Moscow State Philharmonic, Grand Paris Opera Ballet, Czech Nonet and Tatrai Quartet. These ones and other artists such as Van Cliburn, Isaac Stern, Claire Bernard, Friedrich Gulda, David Oistrah, Mstislav Rostropovich, Zubin Mehta, Kiril Kondrashin and Kurt Masur have filled the concert halls once again.
1970 – 5th Edition Due to the Beethoven bicentenary, an initial characteristic of this edition was the massive presence of the creation of Bonn titan – 12 works interpreted – during the festival.
According to this and considering Enescu's affinity for the great classic, the Research Sector of the History of Art Institute, part of the Academy of Social and Political Sciences and the "George Enescu" Studies Center organized a round table with the theme "George Enescu and the Beethovian tradition".
The international personalities who performed in 1970 on the Bucharest stages were Paul Badura- Skoda, Gyorgy Cziffra, Henryk Szeryng, Mstislav Rostropovich, Nicanor Zabaletta, Jean Pierre Rampal, who replaced Valentin Gheorghiu (who became unavailable in the last minute), Virginia Zeani, Paul Klecky and André Previn. If in the previous editions the range of instruments was reduced to piano, violin and cello, during this edition a greater variety was observed, by inviting the most notable harpist of the time, Nicanor Zabaletta, and the legendary flautist Jean Pierre Rampal.
Probably the most important symphonic ensemble was the London Symphony Orchestra for which the Palace Grand Hall proved to be too small. Besides these two, other orchestras were also present such as the Opera and Ballet Theatre Orchestra in Leningrad, the Bach Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and other chamber orchestras, such as the Juilliard American Quintet and the Gasparo da Salo Chamber Orchestra.
1973 – 6th Edition The sixth edition of the International Festival "George Enescu" was reduced to only one week, due to the discomfort presented by the political authorities, who considered an artistic manifestation of this kind to be a useless investment.
Among the international soloists and conductors present this year were: Leonid Kogan, who replaced Sviatoslav Richter, who was supposed to perform in the opening concert, Yehudi Menuhin, Philippe Entremont, Ghenadi Rojdestvenski and Radmila Bakocevici.
Artists were invited exclusively on political criteria, most of them coming from socialist countries or from the ones sympathizing with the doctrine of the communist government. Three from the five international orchestras come from the communist countries.
1976 – 7th Edition This year, the Festival did not include a competition and an organizing committee. Also, the International Musicology Symposium did not benefit from the participation of international researchers, becoming a national symposium.
The soloists and the orchestras invited to participate in the festival were again selected based on political criteria. Among the notable international personalities, the Romanian public could attend the concerts of Pierre Cochereau, Christian Ferras, Grace Bumbry, Victoria de Los Angeles, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, three years before the retirement of the great artist.
There were four international ensembles present: the Hungarian Symphony Radiotelevision Orchestra in Budapest, the Madrigals in Belgrad, Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the "Studio der Frühen Musik" Vocal-Instrumental Quartet.
Among the Romanian artists could be mention: Radu Lupu, Ştefan Ruha, Ludovic Bacs, Mircea Basarab, Mihai Brediceanu, Iosif Conta, Emil Simion and Cornel Trăilescu.
1979 – 8th Edition The Festival "George Enescu" was becoming rather a national manifestation, as a shadow of the Competition "Cântarea României", which could thus celebrate its laureates at an international artistic level. Despite this drawback, this year's edition had a few remarkable guests, such as Nikita Magaloff, Viktor Tretiakov, Ludwig Hölscher and Sheila Armstrong.