The festival's last week brings performances from Orchestre National De France, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Il Giardino Armonico, and Les Dissonances, while outdoor concerts take place in the Festival's Square program.

The Great Orchestras of the World series will allow the public to see performances from the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra alongside pianist Martha Argerich, with a program that includes Enescu's Pastorale-fantaisie pour petit orchestra, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. The orchestra's second concert features cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason as soloist for a program covering Kodály's Dances of Galánta, Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1, and Enescu's Symphony No. 2.

In the same series, chamber orchestra Le Balcon will perform with the Orchestra of the Romanian National Opera (ONB) a concert version of Messiaen's opera Saint François d'Assise.

The festival's artistic director, Cristian Măcelaru, will lead the Orchestre National De France, where he is a music director, for two concerts. The first one will have violinist Augustin Hadelich as soloist, with a program covering Boulez's Notations I-IV & VII, Dutilleux's Violin Concerto L'Arbre des songes, and Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps, while the second will see the orchestra perform alongside pianist Kirill Gerstein; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, Enescu's Symphony No. 3 and Romanian Rhapsody are part of the program.

The final two concerts at Sala Palatului will be delivered by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a tradition already established at the festival. The orchestra, conducted by Klaus Makela, will perform alongside pianist Yuja Wang for the first concert and the Romanian Radio Academic Choir, the Romanian Radio Children Choir, and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston for the second. The program of the first performance includes Debussy’s Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune, Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major and Piano Concerto in G major, and Debussy’s La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestra, while that of the second Enescu’s Concert Overture on Popular Romanian Themes and Mahler’s Symphony No. 3.

The Athenaeum will host concerts by Manchester Camerata, Camerata Salzburg, Il Giardino Armonico, Les Dissonances led by artistic director and soloist David Grimal, Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna led by Roberto Abbado, and Les Arts Florissants led by musical director William Christie. The same venue hosts the By Midnight series, which will see performances from harpist Xavier de Maistre, José Cura, the Romanian Radio Chamber Orchestra, and Laurențiu Topală.

Besides the Enescu and His Contemporaries and Romanian Orchestras series, the festival's final week also includes the program of outdoor events held in George Enescu Square under the name of Festival's Square.

More on the festival's program here.

Where to watch:

Those who cannot make it to the festival have the option of watching some of them on the festival's website, where they are streamed live and remain available for 12 hours. The available concerts can be seen in the festival website's live stream section or on their individual pages, to be found from the main program page. The public television TVR broadcasts more than 60 concerts from the festival, either live or recorded, as do the public radio stations Radio Romania Muzical and Radio Romania Cultural.

(Photo: Alex Damian, courtesy of Enescu Festival)

simona@romania-insider.com