The George Enescu Festival

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Aug 282009
 

Versiune în română

Keeping with the musical theme but moving to the other end of the scale, the biggest Romanian clasical music event is starting in 2 days: the George Enescu festival. George Enescu is Romania’s most famous composer and this event is celebrated in his honour every two years. The festival was started in 1958 and 2009 will be its 19th edition which will run from August the 30th to September 26th. To honor the composer the festival includes at least one work by Enescu in its main concerts. Otherwise spectators can enjoy everything from symphonic and chamber music concerts to opera and ballet, even some classical music in jazz arrangements. In the beginning of this event, from August 30th to September 6th three international music competitions will take place for piano, violin and composition, one of the festival’s goals being to launch and promote young artists. Throughout the whole period events will be held in the square fronting the Athenaeum, including concerts by students from the music school, recitals and movie screenings. If you’re a classical music fan, than this is your heaven. More details here.

Madonna in Bucharest

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Aug 272009
 

Versiune în română

After Michael Jackson opened the gates by coming to Romania in 1992, many big names in music have made it to Bucharest. Depeche Mode, Sting, Rolling Stones, Metallica only to name a few, concerted in Bucharest in the last decade. It might not seem like a big deal to people who were born in a democratic country and it’s not a big deal to me now, but back in 1992 it was a dream come true. I went to highschool when the communist were still in power and to see such a concert with a Western pop star was unthinkable. I remember looking at smuggled videotapes with live concerts of bands that were popular at that time and thinking “If only I could be there”. Maybe because of this nostalgia I keep going to these big concerts. But I was planning to skip this one because I don’t care too much about Madonna and her music and as a form of protest to the high price of the tickets. I ended up buying the tickets by mistake (don’t ask, it’s a long and embarrasing story 🙂 )

Since the usual place for such gatherings – the National Stadium – is being renovated, Madonna performed for two hours in front of 60.000 people on a stage built especially for this event in Parc Izvor. It was maybe ironic that she perfomed so close to that humongous, ugly palace that Ceausescu, the former communist dictator, envisioned as the seat for his political power. It was Madonna’s first concert in Bucharest and it was a good concert, but not a great one. Many pop concerts are not so much about music but the whole show as an entertainment occasion: the music parts the stage with the light show, the coreography and dancing, the costumes. The atmosphere reached its peak when she payed homage to Michael Jackson. She also made a statement against the discrimination of gypsies and homosexuals in Eastern Europe. Still, there was something missing, that bit of magic that carries you away.

I would have to excuse myself for the quality of the photo. Only small cameras were allowed so I couldn’t take my SLR. I had to settle for a point and shoot Canon camera which I keep for situations like these, when I’m not allowed to bring my 40D.

The people next to you

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Aug 112009
 

Versiune în română

If you follow Arthur Verona Street from Magheru Bouvelard to Pitar Moş take a look at the yellowish building on the right. Up in the false windows of this building there are 19 photographs, portraits of people, left hanging there from last year. The exhibition is by photograph Dan Hayon and is called “The people next to you”. They were installed in July 2008 as part of an event called Street Delivery which started in 2005 and has become an annual event. During Street Delivery one street is closed to traffic for two days and becomes a pedestrian promenade; their slogan is “Closing the street for cars and opening it for people” All sorts of events and activities take place, some with themes like urbanism and environment, activities for children, crafts, art installations, exhibitions, concerts, movie projections, book launchings, street art etc. The effect of the portraits is quite striking and I’m not sure that my photo does them justice.

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