Leoš Janáček’s Piano Concertino, in confrontation with the elemental music whose roots grow from the rich culture of Romania, will be presented by artists who have this music inherently in their blood: the energetic Romanian pianist Daniel Ciobanu and the Romanian Chamber Orchestra with conductor Gabriel Bebeselea.

George Enescu
Pastorale-Fantaisie

Dinu Lipatti
Concertino in Classical Style, Op. 3

Leoš Janáček
Concertino, JW VII/11

György Ligeti
Concert Românesc

Daniel Ciobanu – piano
Romanian Chamber Orchestra
Gabriel Bebeselea – conductor

Leoš Janáček’s Piano Concertino, placed in dialogue with music of elemental vitality rooted in the rich culture of Romania, will be presented by artists for whom this repertoire is truly in their blood: the energetic Romanian pianist Daniel Ciobanu and the Romanian Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Gabriel Bebeselea.

George Enescu composed his Pastorale-Fantaisie for small orchestra in 1899 at the age of just seventeen while studying at the Paris Conservatoire, and the work was performed in Paris later that same year. The score then lay forgotten until 2017, when conductor Gabriel Bebeșelea revived this early, romantically expansive composition. Years later, Enescu became a mentor to the young yet extraordinarily talented Bucharest-born pianist Dinu Lipatti. Between the two world wars, Lipatti was regarded as one of the most respected piano virtuosos of his time, though his career was tragically cut short by premature death. Alongside his performing career, Lipatti also devoted himself marginally to composition. His Concertino in Classical Style from 1936 reflects inspiration drawn from the music of Joseph Haydn and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Janáček’s Concertino for piano and chamber ensemble, composed in 1925, represents a wholly distinctive sound world which—much like his opera The Cunning Little Vixen—turns toward nature. “There is a cricket, flies, a young deer – a friendly brook – and then a human,” Janáček wrote about the piece to Kamila Stösslová. Even a hundred years after its premiere, celebrated this year, this jewel of chamber music continues to radiate extraordinary youthful energy and freshness.

Unbridled vitality also characterises György Ligeti’s Concert Românesc, written in 1951 by the Hungarian enfant terrible of the musical avant-garde of the second half of the 20th century. Elements of Romanian folk music and the raw sound of village folk bands are strikingly interwoven here with a modern musical language.