20th Enescu festival raises the curtain

The 20th anniversary George Enescu music festival has opened in Bucharest with a performance of Enescu’s First Symphony by the Hague Philharmonic.

Conducted by Romanian Christian Badea, the concert is the first of a series of 13 by some of the leading orchestras in the world with some of its leading conductors.

The festival began in 1958 only to be suppressed by the Communists in 1971, returning after the fall of the Ceaucescus. It runs for 25 days.

“Enescu was a world-famous violinist, and a universal musician, like a renaissance artist I would say, and a humanist with an outstanding character, extremely human,” says the festival’s artistic director Ioam Holender.

Ticket prices have been kept low in a bid to keep the Romanian capital buzzing for a whole month.

In spite of the general economic crisis the Enescu festival’s budget has been almost uncut, showing how important the event is for Romania.

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