"Destination: Bucharest" - The music of yesterday and today in the Capital city

The rhythm of the city changed from one decade to another, in tune with the changes Bucharest went through, but music remained one of its constants. We start a musical journey and discover the moment when the community gathered to support the construction of the Romanian Athenaeum, the city where lovers sang serenades under balconies and arranged dates in Cișmigiu Park, but also the neighborhoods that inspired today's artists.

We start our walk at the Anton Pann Memorial House, which opened in 2018, on a street close to Sfânta Vineri Square, in the area of the former Jewish neighborhood. The museum is dedicated to the poet and composer who is credited with the music of the national anthem of Romania – “Deșteaptă-te, române!” (Awaken, Romanian!). Pann lived in Bucharest beginning with 1812 and he left behind some of the most valuable testimonies about the city during the first half of the 19th century. The oriental tastes and habits and the western influence were blending in the urban texture of the city of the time and part of that spirit is captured in the songs Pann included in the volume “Spitalul amorului sau Cântătorul dorului” (The Hospital of Love or the Singer of Longing). Among them is “Până când nu te iubeam” (Until I didn’t love you), which became a local hit performed by Maria Tănase and was recently covered by Pink Martini. The song “Arză-l focul, dascăl” (Damn, that teacher) is also part of Pann’s collection, and was included on the soundtrack of the movie Aferim!. The film, directed by Radu Jude, received in 2015 the Silver Bear at the International Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale). The film is set in 1835 Wallachia and tackles the topic of the enslavement of the Roma, whom the revolutionaries of 1848 wanted released.