Vasily Petrenko, Charles Dutoit, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Renaud Capuçon, Daniel Hope, Julian Rachlin, and Vadim Repin are among the artists invited to perform at the George Enescu Philharmonic in the 2024-2025 season, the Bucharest institution announced.

The lineup of international artists – that the Bucharest public is more accustomed to listening to every two years at the George Enescu Festival – is part of the Philharmonic's efforts "to build an international profile."

The Philharmonic will bring 95 Romanian and foreign soloists and conductors to Bucharest in its upcoming season, and 57 of them will be included in its artistic programming for the first time, it said.

"With the 2024-2025 season, the George Enescu Philharmonic takes the most ambitious step yet towards building an international profile. We want to become the place where Romanian music lovers can listen to both famous foreign artists and the best Romanian artists throughout the year. […] We aim to regain the status of the interwar period, when the Romanian Athenaeum was the place where the great musicians of the time performed, alongside the George Enescu Philharmonic," Marin Cazacu, director of the George Enescu Philharmonic, explained.

The program: premieres, opera in concert, works by Enescu

The 2024-2025 season is dedicated to Romanian musician George Enescu, with several works he composed to be performed, the Philharmonic announced.

Overall, the program, described as "the most ambitious and rich so far," covers representative works from a variety of periods, ranging from Baroque to contemporary music, classical music 'hits' by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky or Beethoven, but also novel works.

Johann Sebastian Bach's masterpiece of sacred music Matthäus-Passion is scheduled in the period preceding the Easter holidays, with conductor Gabriel Bebeşelea scheduled to lead the orchestra in 2025 concerts that also mark 340 years since the composer's birth.

At the same time, two operas in concert will be performed at the Athenaeum, namely Francis Poulenc's La Voix Humaine, and Maurice Ravel's L'heure espagnole. Arvo Pärt's Silouan's Song, Olga Viktorova's Quinlong Azure Dragon, Toru Takemitsu's Three Film Scores, Dominique Probst's Overture of the Nuées cycle, and Kristjan Järvi's Aurora are some of the contemporary music works scheduled in the program.

Meanwhile, the institution will continue supporting contemporary Romanian composers, and the Bucharest public is invited to listen to young composer Alin Chelărescu's work Oblatio Lucis, commissioned by the Philharmonic.

Furthermore, Livia Teodorescu Ciocănea's oratorio Câmpuri de maci (Poppy Fields) and the piano concerti composed by Carmen Petra-Basacopol and Paul Constantinescu will also be performed.

The season will open with the concerts scheduled for October 3 and October 4, when the orchestra will perform alongside violinist Ioana Cristina Goicea, an artist in residence of the George Enescu Philharmonic in the upcoming season, conducted by Mikhail Pletnev. The program includes Jean Sibelius's Violin Concerto, Aleksandr  Glazunov's The Seasons, and Alfred Alessandrescu's Autumn Twilight.

The artists

Among those set to take the Philharmonic's stage are: conductors Vasily Petrenko, Mikhail Pletnev, Kristjan Järvi, Arnaud Arbet, Renaud Capuçon, Maxime Pascal, Nabil Shehta, Paul Goodwin, Gergely Madaras,José Luis Gomez, Lionel Bringuier, Julian Rachlin, Andrei Boreiko, Alexandre Bloch, Alexander Liebreich,Yan Pascal Tortelier, Roberto Forés Veses, Charles Dutoit, Samy Rachid,Jérémie Rhorer, Dmitri Liss, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Dmitri Jurowski, Jesko Sirvend, Ana Patino Osario, Robert Farkas, and Courtney Lewis; pianists Bruce Liu, David Kaduch, Petr Limonov, Eva Gevorghyan, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Alexandre Tharaud, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Mikhail Pletnev, and Nobuyuki Tsujii; violinists Daniel Hope, Liza Ferschtman, Alexandra Conunova, Vadim Repin, and Alena Baeva; cellists Zlatomir Fung, Ivan Karizna, and Edgar Moreau; trumpet player Tine Thing Helseth, and vocal soloists Damien Bigourdan (tenor), Marina Belli (mezzo-soprano),Peter Kirk (tenor), Charles Rice (baritone), Barnaby Rea (bas), Hye-Youn Lee (soprano), Judit Kutasi (mezzo-soprano), Roberto Scandiuzzi (bas), and Katerina Knezikova (soprano).

Also scheduled to perform in the 2024-2025 season are pianists Elisabeth Leonskaja and Elena Bashkirova, while conductors Christian Zacharias and Jean-Claude Casadesus will return to the stage of the Athenaeum, the home of the George Enescu Philharmonic.

The list of Romanian artists includes conductors Gabriel Bebeșelea and Nicolae Moldoveanu, cellists Mihaela Martin and Alexandra Conunova, and pianists Viniciu Moroianu and Dana Ciocârlie, alongside violinist Ioana Cristina Goicea, cellists Valentin Răduțiu and Andrei Ioniță, and pianist Daniel Ciobanu.

At the same time, actress Ana Ularu will take the stage of the Philharmonic as narrator for Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No 3 Kaddish, alongside soprano Ana Maria Labin.

Passes & tickets

The program for the upcoming season is available on the Philharmonic's website. Passes will be available online between August 5 and September 19, and at the ticket office between September 3 and September 19. Tickets will be on sale starting September 20.

(Photo: Neacsu Razvan Chirnoaga | Dreamstime.com)

simona@romania-insider.com