Berlioz - Between Passionate And Fantastic
The works of Hector Berlioz have in good justice been reputed to occasion most spectacular renderings, as the French romantic was a creator of inexhaustible fantasy and multiple resources. The title Symphonie fantastique on a bill could spell either a risk or a professional
The Seventh Symphony, Volumes
Pascal BentoiuPerformed in premiere in Bucharest Undoubtedly, composer Pascal Bentoiu must be regarded at present as one of the most outstanding symphonists of the Romanian musical school of the 20th century. The recent first performance in Bucharest of Symphony No. 7, Volumes,
Musical Summer In Europe
Schwerin Founded by Heinrich der Lowe in 1160, the city today is worthy of its eight-century tradition. It abounds in vestiges – proudly and understandingly nurtured – of a history that is comprehensive in what regards the cultivation of music, too. The notes that I
The Head Of The Orchestra
I think the idea of a head of the orchestra arose two and a half centuries ago, as a result of the activity of the Mannheimer Circle, who had invented acoustic dynamics: the game of intensity, as a component of the agogic, a quite unproductive term for most of the music
Speech Read On The Radio And Published In August 1970
A few days back, a shattering piece of news darkened our souls and filled our eyes with tears: the heart of the great Romanian musician Ionel Perlea has stopped. Unable to contain this terrible pain, our memory revisited in one instant the unique days he gave us in that
The Conductor
The Romanian realm has given great creating spirits to the world, in all fields of activity: philosophers, historians, sociologists, scientists that made epoch-making discoveries, inventors, writers (poets, prose writers, and dramatists), brilliant musicians, painters, and
A Hero Without His Right Wing
Far from his country, across the ocean, in 1957, while he conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in New York, conductor Ionel Perlea had a heart attack. He had the courage and most of all the strength to go on conducting until he finished the Ode to Joy, after which he
I May Count Myself As Having Been Born Under A Lucky Star
As early as my years of instruction, while at The Academy of Music in Bucharest – as part of the group of the grand and incomparable professional singer and mentor Constantin Stroescu (Enrico Caruso's partner in Boston, 1915, in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci) – destiny
Echoes
Aida, March 17, 1920. I waited for it. With the justifiable, feverish impatience you feel before an ideal dream comes true!, wrote the Rampa magazine on March 18, 1920, hailing the opening of the first lyrical season. People liked the cheap, but very beautiful stage design,
Three Romanian Conducting Maestros In One
Of all the great 20th century conductors, Egizio Massini was the only one who distinguished himself equally in three different fields (opera, symphonic music, and fanfare). Even if he made tours abroad conducting all threes types of music, opera was the genre that distinguished
Letters
Enescu:Dear Georgescu,This is what I got from professor Hajak (Targu Mures). He plays well and it would be a good policy to have him play one of the concertos he proposed with the Philharmonic. I did not mean to bother you with this matter, but he insists, as you can see.
Echoes
On 20 November 1921 an enthusiastic letter written by the poet Cincinat Pavelescu is published in Rampa, a letter which we see fit to transcribe in full: Dear Mr. Editor in Chief, My life's absorbing activities of incessant work at the head of a newspaper without any