Enescu Festival: Performances from classical music A-listers for event’s fourth and final week

The festival's last week brings performances from Orchestre National De France, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Il Giardino Armonico, and Les Dissonances, while outdoor concerts take place in the Festival's Square program.

The Great Orchestras of the World series will allow the public to see performances from the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra alongside pianist Martha Argerich, with a program that includes Enescu's Pastorale-fantaisie pour petit orchestra, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. The orchestra's second concert features cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason as soloist for a program covering Kodály's Dances of Galánta, Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1, and Enescu's Symphony No. 2.

In the same series, chamber orchestra Le Balcon will perform with the Orchestra of the Romanian National Opera (ONB) a concert version of Messiaen's opera Saint François d'Assise.

The festival's artistic director, Cristian Măcelaru, will lead the Orchestre National De France, where he is a music director, for two concerts. The first one will have violinist Augustin Hadelich as soloist, with a program covering Boulez's Notations I-IV & VII, Dutilleux's Violin Concerto L'Arbre des songes, and Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps, while the second will see the orchestra perform alongside pianist Kirill Gerstein; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, Enescu's Symphony No. 3 and Romanian Rhapsody are part of the program.

The final two concerts at Sala Palatului will be delivered by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a tradition already established at the festival. The orchestra, conducted by Klaus Makela, will perform alongside pianist Yuja Wang for the first concert and the Romanian Radio Academic Choir, the Romanian Radio Children Choir, and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston for the second. The program of the first performance includes Debussy’s Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un fau ne, Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D majo r and Piano Concerto in G major, and Debussy’s La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestra