Bucharest concerts: Pianist Daniel Ciobanu, actress Isabel Karajan perform alongside George Enescu Philharmonic

The George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gabriel Bebeşelea, will perform alongside pianist Daniel Ciobanu and Austrian actress Isabel Karajan for two concerts on April 7 and April 8 at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest.

The public can listen for the first time to the Romanian composer Dan Dediu’s work Kalte Gedichte, with lyrics by Austrian poet Ernst Jandl, and with actress Isabel Karajan performing. The work is meant to highlight “the particularities of Romanian music and its dialogue with European art, particularly the Austrian one.”

Actress Isabel Karajan, the daughter of conductor Herbert von Karajan, has worked in film and theater. She also created personal concepts for various chamber music and orchestra performances. The opera Stillhang by Christian Spitzenstätter, directed by Klaus Ortner, with Isabel Karajan in the leading role, was awarded the Austrian Opera Prize for best first performance in 2020.

This will be followed by Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with Daniel Ciobanu as soloist. Ciobanu, currently an artist in residence of the George Enescu Philharmonic, first attracted international acclaim in 2017 at the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, where he won both the Silver Medal and Audience Prize. He subsequently performed at Carnegie Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Konzerthaus Berlin, St John’s Smith Square in London, George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, and toured in Japan, China, Taiwan, South Africa and Brazil.

The program also includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6.

(Photo: Milan Maksovic/ Dreamstime)