On the occasion of the General Assembly of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) organized by Radio Romania Muzical in Bucharest and Brazov, three concerts were also held in which the ICMA jury members took part.
The first concert began with the performance of the Concerto in C minor for cello and orchestra by the Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra under Christoph König and the brilliant Italian cellist Enrico Dindo at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest.
In the second part, the Requiem KV 626 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was performed under Christoph König’s direction, with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir.
At the second concert in the Auditorium of the Romanian Radio, soprano Cristina Pasaroiu sang with the National Radio Orchestra and the Academic Radio Choir under the direction of David Crescenzi.
The gala program included the overture to the operetta Crai Nou by Ciprian Porumbescu, as well as excerpts from operas such as Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli and Faust by Charles Gounod.
On the third evening, the jury members enjoyed a chamber music concert presented by their colleague Cristina Comandasu in the Sala Patria of the Brasov Philharmonic, organized in collaboration with Radio Romania Muzical.
It was a special concert in which the artists shone with a representative Romanian program.
At the beginning, Razvan Popovici, viola, and Ioan-Dragoș Dimitriu, piano, played the Arioso & Allegro de Concert by Stan Golestan and the virtuoso concert piece by Enescu.
Violinist Iuliana Münch and composer and pianist André Parfenov then played the latter’s Pensée à Ravel and Parfenov’s highly virtuoso arrangement of Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz.
This was followed by the interpretation of George Enescu’s third violin sonata, ‘Dans le caractère populaire roumain’ (in Romanian folk style), a chamber music composition from 1926 by Alexandru Tomescu and Eduard Kunz.
The concerts were supported by the Rotary Club Pipera, the Remember Enescu Foundation and the Brasov Philharmonic.