This year's edition of the Bucharest Early Music Festival, which takes place until December 5th, will have Spanish conductor, composer and viol player Jordi Savall and the ensemble he established, Hesperion XXI, among its invited artists.

The festival opened on November 2nd with a solo harpsichord concert delivered by Alexander von Heissen.

The second concert, scheduled for November 4th at the Auditorium Hall of the National Museum of Art of Romania (MNAR), will be delivered by the ensemble I Bassifondi, inviting the audience to sample the music of Rome in the 1600s.

A special guest this year is Jordi Savall, the early music master who has spent his career rediscovering and performing lost or forgotten musical treasures. Alongside the ensemble he established in 1974, he will perform works by Diego Ortiz, Francesco Corbetta, Pedro Guerrero, Antonio de Cabezón, Francisco Correa de Arauxo, and Antonio Valente, among others.

The program also includes performances from Francois Lazarevitch and Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien (France), Simone Vallerotonda and I Bassifondi (Italy), Mira Glodeanu and the ensemble Sempre (France/Romania), Martyna Pastuszka & {oh!} Orkiestra (Poland), Elisabeth Seitz and the ensemble Nuovo aspetto (Germany), the ensemble Fonte di Gioia (Romania), the ensemble Sempre (Romania), Filotheu Monahul and the choir Melos paisian (Romania).

The concerts take place at MNAR, Sala Radio, and Sf. Ioan Rusul Church.

The program of the festival is available here.

(Photo: Olga Besnard | Dreamstime.com)

simona@romania-insider.com