Enescu would have enjoyed the variety of great music bringing together family, friends and community, much as he did as a violinist, conductor and composer. […] The music was engaging and uplifting. George Enescu’s Sérénade lointaine was a lyrically sensuous work that seemed to express Enescu’s longing for his homeland.
Sâmbătă, 7 septembrie, în preajma uneia dintre cele mai circulate intersecţii din Toronto (Bloor St. şi Spadina Bd.), într-un cartier cunoscut pentru viaţa sa culturală şi comunitară deosebit de intensă, de pe un un baner impozant privirea lui Enescu urmăreşte paşii trecătorilor. Mulţi dintre aceştia, la rândul lor, fixează cu privirea afişul publiciar, dornici poate să afle şi motivul pentru care atâta lume s-a adunat în faţa intrării teatrului Jeanne Lamon Hall din incinta catedralei Trinity-St. Paul. Cei mai curioşi dintre ei pot astfel afla că urmează să înceapă, în cadrul ediţiei cu numărul 24 a Festivalului International „George Enescu”, un concert de muzică de cameră. Pentru prima dată o secţiune a faimosului festival se desfăşoară în afara graniţelor României, iar Toronto face parte din oraşele nord-americane (alături de Montreal) înscrise de organizatori pe harta acestui important eveniment cultural.
Crow and Solomon (who is the artistic director of the Canadian branch of the festival) fill their program with late-19th- and early-20th-century fireworks representative of Enescu’s legacy. Ravel’s Sonata in G Major was premiered by Ravel at the piano and Enescu on the violin in 1927; Ysaÿe’s “fiery” Sonata for solo violin No.3 was dedicated to Enescu in 1923; Bartók’s Romanian Dances; Brahms’ Sonata No.3 for Violin and Piano; and Enescu’s Toccata from Piano Suite Op.10 and Impromptu Concertant.
He may be under-represented in today’s local recital programs, but during his life, George Enescu was well known and welcomed to Toronto.
The George Enescu Festival lands in Canada for the first time this September, with three events in Toronto and one in Montreal. But is the great Romanian composer a familiar name to Canadians?
