The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra led by Zubin Mehta will perform in Bucharest alongside piano legend Martha Argerich and violinist Lisa Batiashvili for two concerts marking 145 years since the first group of Jewish people received Romanian citizenship.

The two events, organized by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, are scheduled for September 29 at the Romanian Athenaeum and September 30 at the Palatului Hall.

The concert having Lisa Batiashvili as soloist will take place on September 29. The program includes Tchaikovsky's Concert Op. 35 in D major for violin and orchestra and Symphony No. 4.

The concert with Martha Argerich as soloist is set for September 30. The program includes Concert No. 1 op.15 in C major for piano and orchestra by Ludwig van Beethoven and Symphony No. 4 by Anton Bruckner.

Martha Argerich is also scheduled to feature in the opening concert of the 2024-2025 season of Bucharest's George Enescu Philharmonic.

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1936 by Bronislaw Huberman, and its inaugural concert, which took place on December 26, 1936, was conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

Zubin Mehta has an international career spanning over 65 years. Since 1961, he has been invited to conduct the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as the Israel Philharmonic, orchestras with which he has collaborated for more than 50 years. A music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (1961-1967) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1962-1978), he was appointed music director of the Israel Philharmonic in 1977. He became its music director for life in 1981. For 13 years, he was the music director of the New York Philharmonic, and from 1985 to 2017, he served as the principal conductor of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where he has been an honorary director for life. He is also the honorary president of the George Enescu International Festival.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argerich took her first piano lessons at the age of five with Vincenzo Scaramuzza. In 1955, she moved to Europe and continued her studies in London, Vienna and Switzerland. In 1957, she won both the Bolzano and Geneva Piano Competitions, and in 1965 she continued with the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Since then, she has been considered one of the world's foremost female pianists, both in skill and popularity. She maintains an extensive repertoire, which includes but is not limited to the works of Bach, Bartók, Beethoven and Messiaen, as well as Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Franck, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. She has received numerous Grammy awards and the Gramophone Award for Artist of the Year.

Lisa Batiashvili was an artist-in-residence at the Berlin Philharmonic, and now her concert schedule includes collaborations with the Tonhalle Zürich Orchestra (conductor Paavo Järvi), the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam (conductor Klaus Mäkelä), the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (conductor Daniel Harding) and the London Symphony Orchestra (conductor Antonio Pappano).

Tickets can be purchased from Eventim.ro, Cărturești and Humanitas Bookstores, Carrefour or Good2Go stores.

(Illustration: the organizers)

simona@romania-insider.com