Some 30,000 individual tickets for the 2017 edition of the George Enescu International Festival sold out within hours of becoming available to the public, the festival organizers announced. At the same time, 34,000 tickets sold on February 16, when the sales campaign started. Some events within the festival were sold out in seconds.

The interest in attending the festival was equally high last year, when festival passes sold out in certain categories within minutes of being put up for sale.

Nevertheless, tickets are still available for some concerts featuring international stars of the classical music.

In the Great Orchestras of the World series, tickets for the concert of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Manfred Honeck and featuring violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, can still be purchased. Similarly, tickets are available for the Münchner Philharmoniker concert on September 10, led by Valery Gergiev, one of the most acclaimed conductors in the world. The concert will feature young Romanian cellist Andrei Ioniță as a soloist.

Also available are the two concerts of the Royal Concergebouw Amsterdam, held at the end of the festival, on September 23 and 24. The Dutch orchestra is led by Danielle Gatti, and will be in Bucharest as part of a European tour titled Side by Side.

At the same time, the public can still opt for the concert of Filarmonica della Scala on September 15, with Julian Rachlin as a soloist, for the opening concert of the festival, which will see Enescu’s opera Oedip performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, or for the concert of the Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conducted by Antonio Pappano, on September 21.

In the Chamber Recitals and Concerts series, tickets can still be purchased for the London Philharmonic Players concert.

In the Midnight Concert series, the audience still has a chance to attend the concert of the Ensemble en Chordais, Emsemble Constantinopole, and the Anton Pann Choire, who will bring to the festival a rare selection of ancient works reunited under the title The Musical Voyages of Marco Polo.

The Music of the 21st Century series also has tickets available. This series brings together some of the most important contemporary composers. Thirty of them will be present in Bucharest during the festival, and will engage with the public as part of the International Composers Forum.

Indian conductor Zubin Mehta is the honorary president of the festival, while Vladimir Jurowski, the principal conductor and artistic adviser of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, is the festival’s artistic director.

More about the festival program here.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo: Vlad Eftenie)