MAE

Cristina Hamel

I first saw Cristina Hamel when I was a petit rat and I would sneak a look at the soloists during rehearsals, crouching behind a pillar. I remember her rehearsing unrelentingly a diagonal of pirouettes that wouldn't turn out well, in Act II of Swan Lake. I was admiring

Gelu Barbu At 45 Years From The Debut

The ballet dancer who made his debut on the stage of the Kirov Theatre in Sankt Petersburg, prime ballet dancer at the Opera in Bucharest, then, after 1961, prime ballet dancer at the Norwegian Royal Opera in Oslo, decorated by King Olaf with the Constitution medal, first

Gabriel Popescu

A superstar of Romanian ballet in its golden era, when the light coming from the East would fashion great interpreters, Gabriel Popescu began the study of dance with the maestra Floria Capsali. He was hired by the Bucharest Opera in 1948, when he was 16, and in 1949 he was

Interview With Magdalena Popa

Art critics acclaimed Magdalena Popa: She is one of the most dazzling stars of the century. She was regarded as a goddess of this art. Her small body expressed grace, a sort of ritual noblesse. Born in Bucharest, she graduated from the High School of Choreography and then

Echoes

More recent press excerpts WIENER ZEITUNG January 28, 2002 (Rainer Elstner)Rundfunksinfonieorchester Wien/Horia Andreescu…der Celibidache-Schuller Andreescu entfachte wahren Klangzauber…Der temperamentvolle Dirigent war ein perfekter Partner… KOLNER STADTANZEIGER

Horia Andreescu And An Exceptional Mozart Piece

A special moment at the close of the musical season was marked by the meeting, after 20 years, of conductor Erich Bergel with the National Radio Orchestra. Bergel conducted several times the Cluj Philharmonic – his first and most faithful love – in the past three years.

Berlioz - Between Passionate And Fantastic

The works of Hector Berlioz have in good justice been reputed to occasion most spectacular renderings, as the French romantic was a creator of inexhaustible fantasy and multiple resources. The title Symphonie fantastique on a bill could spell either a risk or a professional

The Master Of Romanian First Auditions

There is a hidden passion in revealing the Romanian first absolute auditions that characterize conductor Horia Andreescu, the artisan of some essential scores of autochthonous contemporary symphonism. Besides the unknown Symphony No. 5 by George Enescu, discovered, re-orchestrated

Thank You, Maestro!

I count myself to the category of performers who do not deem themselves as conductor-addicted, nevertheless, it is hard for me to clarify the feeling I sense when I assert this. Maybe, it is a matter of tribute to the Lord, to Whose unique credit destiny willed that I master

A Pilgrim On The Ocean Of Music

Conductor Constantin Silvestri's first contact with the music of the Occidental world represented a shock because the entire classical and modern music deeply imprinted on the consciousness of the public was utterly shaken by a new, contemporary, vital spark of the

Dialogue With Composer Theodor Grigoriu About Ionel Perlea

Mihaela Marinescu: Did you know maestro Ionel Perlea before visiting him in New York in 1967?Theodor Grigoriu: No, I didn't, he had left the country a long time before. He was a legend to my generation, like Enescu, like Lipatti. Before my trip to the United States

A Hero Without His Right Wing

Far from his country, across the ocean, in 1957, while he conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in New York, conductor Ionel Perlea had a heart attack. He had the courage and most of all the strength to go on conducting until he finished the Ode to Joy, after which he