This interest took root in 1895, when, having just won a silver medal at the prestigious Vienna Conservatoire, Enescu chose Paris to pursue his musical training. He entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he rubbed shoulders with the future greats of French classical music: Maurice Ravel, Alfred Cortot, Paul Dukas, all classmates…

In the midst of this artistic effervescence, Enescu made his mark, particularly with his opera Œdipe (1936). This monumental score took him almost twenty years to complete. He died in Paris, his adopted home, and is buried today in the Père-Lachaise cemetery.

The Festival 2025 is a celebration of the French-language masterpieces that have marked the history of classical music. From 27 August to 21 September, lucky festival-goers will plunge into the world of Ravel, Poulenc, Bizet, Rameau and many others. True to its reputation for excellence, the George Enescu International Festival has invited the crème de la crème of international orchestras, with such great voices as Gaëlle Arquez, Benjamin Bernheim and Asmik Grigorian to perform the French repertoire (and others). Finally, two great operas will be performed: Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole andEnescu ‘s famous Oedipus .

The 27th George Enescu International Festival is sure to cause a sensation, with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by the fiery Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the unmissable Martha Argerich with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. French artists take the lion’s share, with Renaud Capuçon, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Alexandre Kantorow, not forgetting ‘almost’ French conductors such as Cristian Măcelaru and Klaus Mäkelä, who conducts not the Orchestre de Paris but his other orchestra, the prestigious Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The dates run until 21 September 2025. The ticket office is still open!

To get your tickets for the Bucharest festival, click here!

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Antonio Pappano conducts Bruckner’s final symphony (No. 9) and in the first half, the superb violinist Lisa Batiashvili performs Beethoven‘s Concerto with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Great stars for a great music!

Book your tickets here 

Lisa Batiashvili (c) Anja Frers

The post Two new masterpieces in Rome appeared first on News Music & Opera.

It´s been nearly fifteen years since the majestic Parco della Musica by architect Renzo Piano opened its doors in Rome, readily met by an enthusiastic and ever growing audience. It must be said that the residential orchestra is very prestigious. The Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is directed since 2005 by Antonio Pappano. This Italian chef with the famous symphony orchestra balances his activities here in a perfect way with his other musical responsibilities as musical director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London.

Of course, the lyric repertoire is never absent from the program and the uptake of a recent Aida recording (with Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros) proves once again that Pappano can play both cards. This 2016-2017 season, the concert version of Beethoven’s Fidelio looks just as strong. The leader directs an extensive repertoire from Bach to Ravel, Schubert, Mozart, Respighi … obviously with eminent soloists.

Cecilia Bartoli sings a Mozart concert in which she excels, as with all the composers the diva interprets. The great pianists like working with Pappano, as Yefim Bronfman playing the famous Piano Concerto No. 5 by Beethoven or Radu Lupu who prefers No. 4. Two great pianists address other masterpieces; Yuja Wang plays the Concerto for Piano No. 1 by Tchaikovsky and Mitsuko Uchida the one by Schumann. Antonio Pappano is joined by the perfect violinist Janine Jansen with whom he often collaborates for a concert of Sibelius, Ravel and Bernstein.

The orchestra knows how to welcome the generation of young talented conductors, as this season Rafael Payare, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, David Afkham, Gustavo Gimeno or Jakub Hrusa who leads the masterpiece of Czech music, Má Vlast by Smetana. Mahler, another great composer showing this season, is particularly well served with high-end conductors as Michael Tilson, Thomas Mahler (Symphony No. 5), Daniel Harding (No. 2), Vladimir Jurowski (No. 1) or yet Peter Eötvös (No. 10).

Among the many major events, the arrival of Valery Gergiev who conducts The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky, Paavo Järvi in ​​a Brahms program, Bartók with Leonidas Kavakos and Daniele Gatti. The great Italian conductor offers the beautiful, very little known, oratorio by Schumann, Das Paradies und die Peri with the delicate Angel Blue.

The season ends in style with Yuri Temirkanov who leads two concerts, the Brahms concerto with the great violinist Julia Fischer and the New World Symphony by Dvorak. Katia and Marielle Labèque, legendary duo, interpret the Concerto for two pianos K. 365 of Mozart and Seong-Jin Cho, 2015 winner of the prestigious Chopin Competition plays the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Rachmaninoff. Note also a beautiful baroque programming including Philippe Jaroussky in the Messiah by Handel conducted by Ton Koopman.

And last but not least, several prestigious recitals:  Evgeny Kissin, Alexander Melnikov, Jan Lisiecki, Murray Perahia, Grigory Sokolov, Hélène Grimaud, Rudolf Buchbinder … So many big names. Book your tickets for the Parco della Musica in Rome without delay!

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