Bucharest (Romania) March 2009
I just returned from a concert trip to Romania (well, I returned over a month ago, actually) and feel I should offer a report.
This was my second trip to Romania in the past year and, once again, I was very impressed with the state of the classical guitar there.
I was invited to Bucharest to take part in what appears to me to be a quite unique event — the guitar festival sponsored by Romanian National Radio in which the performers give both a solo recital and a concerto performance with the National Radio Orchestra, both broadcast live over the radio.
My solo program included Bach (2 cello suites), Sor’s Fantaisie Elegaica and one of the newly discovered concert pieces by Giulio Regondi - Variations on a Theme by Bellini (which, I think, I gave the first modern performance of a couple of years ago).
For the concerto, I played the Doisy-Viotti Concerto (one of three early guitar concertos that I’ve prepared for publication with Chanterelle and which I’ll be recording next month - I gave the first modern performance of these at the GFA a few years ago).
For once, with the help of guest conductor Carmen Cerneci, the orchestra (a very fine orchestra) responded to at least some of my interpretive demands - a quite uncommon occurrence…
The concerto concerts in this festival are programmed in a very interesting way: a young up-coming Romanian guitarist performs one of the more manageable guitar concertos (on my concert, Bogdan Mihailescu gave a great performance of the tricky Vivaldi C-major concerto arranged by Pujol) followed by two concert players (along with myself Marcin Dylla, who gave an effortless performance of the Rodrigo Aranjuez concerto). The orchestra rounds off the program, in this case with the Prokofiev Sinfonia.
The concert, as with the others in the series, was sold out.
On the Sunday lunchtime, I was privileged once again to listen to a concert given by Romania’s youngest players. The standard of playing, as well as the presentation, is extremely high. The future of the guitar in Romania is very bright…
Over the week, I had a wonderful time. Only two concerts to give, a wonderful time in the city with my friend Mihai (a Bucharesti expert who gave me the best tour possible and introduced me to chopped-liver pastries), a wonderful hotel (the almost appropriately-named Hotel Opera) and, of course, many dinners with my good friend Liviu - the father of the Romanian guitar - and his wife Mariana.
I’ll be back in Romania later in the year and I can hardly wait…
