Bucharest: a city of many faces
Bucharest wears its history on the face of its buildings. As I walk around the streets, I feel as if the architecture exposes layers of time. There are grand French-style Belle Époque apartments and leafy parks, the vestiges of a flourishing era that saw the city dubbed ‘Little Paris’. Alongside, there are Brutalist concrete blocks constructed under communism, a system in place for 42 years in Romania. Both visibly bear the brunt of the economic corruption under the dictatorial president Nicolae Ceaușescu, and today many of the walls are all peeling plaster and crumbling stone, a physical reminder of the country’s recent tough times.
A tour of this ‘complete chaos’ of styles is not to be missed, says Cristian Mǎcelaru, artistic director of the George Enescu International Festival, which I’m in town to attend. ‘Bucharest is a perfect living example of what happens when a charismatic person with nutty ideas gets hold of a country and suffocates it for 35 years,’ he says, referring of course to Ceaușescu. ‘You see the destruction and monstrosity of what happened prior to the revolution of 1989 and the beauty of what existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To be able to live and experience all of it at the same time, while also being able to see some of the greatest music ever made is truly a unique experience.’
George Enescu International Festival and Competition: welcoming the world's best musicians
It’s one of the more unusual pitches for a festival, but refreshingly candid, nonetheless. And he’s right that audiences can hear the cream of the classical world at the festival, which was founded in 1958, and now takes place every two years, alternating with the George Enescu International Competition. The first concert on my schedule is an afternoon event featuring piano legend Martha Argerich, playing in one of the most beautiful concert halls I’ve ever been to. The Athenaeum is like an intimate, small-scale Royal Albert Hall, a lavishly decorated, domed building built in 1888. With just under 800 seats, wherever you sit, you feel close to the stage, and the acoustics are gorgeous. What more could you want for hearing Argerich sparkle in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major.
A rare Enescu performance
During the interval, it becomes clear that thanks to a programming quirk – not uncommon during a four-week festival bursting at the seams with concerts, I later learn – I’ll have to choose between hearing Debussy’s La mer or hotfooting it to the opera house to catch the start of the evening’s performance of Enescu’s Oedipe. Given how rare stagings of this opera are and given that the Romanian composer George Enescu is the raison d’etre for the festival, I choose Oedipe. Mǎceralu had said, after all, that ‘Enescu is perhaps the greatest national hero we’ve ever had.’
A staging of his only opera, premiered in Paris in 1936, is a significant event and undertaking, and even though I can’t understand the Romanian subtitles (worth noting they won’t be in English, if you’re visiting the opera house), and can only catch some of the French on stage, the music is luxuriant. I’m glad to have ticked it off my I-Spy opera list. Stefano Poda’s production for Bucharest National Opera is full of symbolism and striking tableaux, and while it doen’t entirely succeed in dealing with the piece’s longueurs, the serious approach matches the weight of the tragedy. The next day, I continue the Enescu pilgrimage with a trip to an ‘Art Safari’ exhibition about him, put on in partnership with the festival, tracing his fascinating life and legacy.
A thrilling Bartók concert
International orchestras flock to the festival, and a couple of nights later, I catch the Budapest Festival Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer, in thrilling performances of Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and The Miraculous Mandarin, staged with the Eva Duda Dance Company. This concert takes place in the Palace Hall (Sala Palatului), which as Mǎcelaru says, ‘is where we present not just the great orchestras of the world, but great repertoire, from Mahler symphonies to Stravinsky ballets.’ The 4,000-seater hall was where communist party congresses used to take place every five years and remains a time capsule of mid-century design, from the light fittings to the marble floors to the ochre velvet curtains. Going to a concert there feels like stepping into the history books.
Enescu International Festival... future ambitions
But the Festival also has its eye firmly on the future. Since taking up his post as artistic director in 2021, Mǎcelaru has expanded its horizons. He’s set up a series of concerts for children, added a late-night, cross-genre series in the Control Club, taken concerts under the festival banner to other cities in Romania, and set up an exchange with Moldova. ‘My hope is to keep building on the legacy I’ve inherited, and to maximise the impact the festival has in our society,’ says Macelaru. ‘It’s a real celebration of something that we are truly proud of as a country.’
With a total prize fund of €150,000, the 2026 George Enescu International Competition takes place from 23 August to 19 September, including categories in cello, violin, piano and composition. Applications are now open, closing on 10 May for cello, violin and piano, and on 30 June for composition.
