The Banatul Philharmonic is a musical institution in Timişoara

Timisoara

Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

. It comprises a symphony orchestra, professional chorus

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

, and various chamber

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 groups.

The Philharmonic Society was founded in 1871 in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 (now Timişoara). Conductors included Heinrich Weidt, Martin Novácek, and Bruno Walter

Bruno Walter

Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor. He is considered one of the best known conductors of the 20th century. Walter was born in Berlin, but is known to have lived in several countries between 1933 and 1939, before finally settling in the United States in 1939...

 (1898-1899). Performers in Timişoara during this period included, as pianists Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...

 and Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

; baritone Gheorghe Dima; cellist David Popper

David Popper

David Popper was a Bohemian cellist and composer.-Life:He was born in Prague, and studied music at the Prague Conservatory. He studied the cello under Julius Goltermann , and soon attracted attention...

; and the violinists Leopold Auer

Leopold Auer

Leopold Auer was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, conductor and composer.-Early life and career:...

, George Enescu

George Enescu

George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...

, Joseph Joachim

Joseph Joachim

Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...

, Jan Kubelík

Jan Kubelík

Jan Kubelík was a Czech violinist and composer.-Biography:He was born in Michle . His father, a gardener by occupation, was an amateur violinist. He taught his two sons the violin and after discovering the talent of Jan, who was aged five at the time, arranged for him to study with Karel Weber and...

, František Ondříček

František Ondrícek

František Ondříček was a Czech violinist and composer. He gave the first performance of the Violin Concerto by Antonín Dvořák, and his achievements were recognised by the rare award of honorary membership of the Philharmonic Society of London in 1891.Ondříček was born in Prague, the son of the...

, Pablo de Sarasate

Pablo de Sarasate

Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués was a Navarrese Spanish violinist and composer of the Romantic period.-Career:Pablo Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, the son of an artillery bandmaster...

, and Henryk Wieniawski

Henryk Wieniawski

Henryk Wieniawski was a Polish violinist and composer.-Biography:Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin, Congress Poland, Russian Empire. His father, Tobiasz Pietruszka, had converted to Catholicism. His talent for playing the violin was recognized early, and in 1843 he entered the Paris...

.

In 1947 the orchestra was renamed the Banatul

Banat

The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...

 State Philharmonic, and eventually simply the Banatul Philharmonic.

Conductors of the Banatul Philharmonic have included George Pavel, Mircea Popa, Nicolae Boboc, Alexandru Şhumsky, Remus Georgescu, Paul Popescu, and Petru Oschanitzky. Gheorghe Costin

Gheorghe Costin

Gheorghe Costin is a Romanian conductor and composer.A disciple of Constantin Bugeanu in Bucharest's Music Academy, he spent two years at the head of the Târgu Mureş Philharmonic before he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Iaşi State Philharmonic, where he would remain for thirteen years...

 and Radu Popu are the current permanent conductors. Guest conductors have included Kurt Herbert Adler

Kurt Herbert Adler

Kurt Herbert Adler was an Austrian-born American conductor and opera house director.Adler was born in Vienna, Austria to a Jewish family. His work in the field of music led him to become the assistant to Arturo Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival in 1936 and he also worked in Italy...

, Roberto Benzi, Anatole Fistoulari

Anatole Fistoulari

Anatole Fistoulari was a noted 20th century conductor.Anatole Fistoulari was born in Kiev Ukraine into a musical family...

, Kiril Kondrashin

Kiril Kondrashin

Kirill Petrovich Kondrashin , was a Russian conductor.-Early life:...

, Stanisław Wisłocki

Stanisław Wisłocki

Stanisław Wisłocki was a Polish conductor of classical music who performed and recorded with many internationally renowned orchestras, ensembles and virtuoso musicians and is highly regarded for his interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Schumann and Tchaikovsky.-Early...

, and Adone Zecchi. Jean-François Antonioli

Jean-François Antonioli

Jean-François Antonioli is a Swiss pianist, conductor and piano pedagogue.Studied piano at Conservatoire de Lausanne and Conservatoire de Paris . Further studies include those with Bruno Seidlhofer in Vienna and Carlo Zecchi in Rome.Performed solo or with orchestra in many musical centres in...

 was Principal Guest Conductor from 1993 to 2002.

Guest soloists with the orchestra have included pianists Dimitri Bashkirov, Julius Katchen

Julius Katchen

Julius Katchen was an American concert pianist, possibly best known for his recordings of Johannes Brahms's solo piano compositions.-Early career:...

, and Rudolf Kerer; violinists Ivry Gitlis

Ivry Gitlis

Ivry Gitlis is an Israeli violinist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. He has performed with the world's top orchestras , and many of his recordings are considered classics.-Life:Born in Haifa, Mandate Palestine to Jewish immigrants from Russia,...

, Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany.-Biography:Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather,...

, Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...

, Vladimir Spivakov

Vladimir Spivakov

Vladimir Teodorovich Spivakov is a leading Russian conductor and violinist best known for his work with the chamber orchestra....

, and Josef Suk

Josef Suk

Josef Suk may refer to:*Josef Suk *Josef Suk , the elder composer's grandson...

; and cellists Miloš Sádlo

Miloš Sádlo

Miloš Sádlo , a Czech cellist, was born in Prague, Czech Republic. Born Miloš Zátvrzský he took the name Sadlo after "Karel Pravoslav Sádlo", his teacher and mentor....

 and Daniil Shafran

Daniil Shafran

-Early years:Daniil Shafran was born in Petrograd in 1923. Even from before his birth he was surrounded by music. His mother and father were music students when he was born. His father, Boris Shafran, went on to be principal cellist of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and his mother, Frida...

.

Other performers in Timişoara have included pianists Annie Fischer

Annie Fischer

Annie Fischer was a Hungarian classical pianist.-Biography:Fischer was born in Budapest, and studied in that city at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music with Ernő Dohnányi. In 1933 she won the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in her native city...

, Artur Rubinstein, and Carlo Zecchi

Carlo Zecchi

Carlo Zecchi was an Italian pianist, music teacher and conductor.Zecchi was born in Rome. He led pianistic courses in Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, and in Salzburg. Highly acclaimed performer of Domenico Scarlatti, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Claude Debussy works, and of Romantic...

; violinists Bronisław Huberman, Fritz Kreisler

Fritz Kreisler

Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...

, Jacques Thibaud

Jacques Thibaud

Jacques Thibaud was a French violinist.Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won the conservatory's violin prize with Pierre Monteux...

, and Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...

; and cellists Pablo Casals

Pablo Casals

Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...

 and Gregor Piatigorsky

Gregor Piatigorsky

Gregor Piatigorsky was a Russian-born American cellist.-Early life:...

. More recently vibraphonist Eldad Tarmu

Eldad Tarmu

Eldad Tarmu is a vibraphonist and composer born in 1960 in Los Angeles, California. He is currently a professor of Jazz Studies at the “Richard Oschanitzky” Jazz Faculty, Tibiscus University, in Timişoara, Romania.-Biography:...

 has played there.

The orchestra has visited many European countries, including Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, and the former Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

.

Recordings

• Ferruccio Busoni
  Ferruccio Busoni
  Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
  
   • Selected Orchestral Suites
  • Contents:
    • Die Brautwahl Suite, op. 45 (1912) BV 261
    • Geharnischte Suite [Armored Suite] op. 34a (Second Orchestral Suite) (1895, 1903) BV 242
  • Conductor: Jean-François Antonioli
    Jean-François Antonioli
    Jean-François Antonioli is a Swiss pianist, conductor and piano pedagogue.Studied piano at Conservatoire de Lausanne and Conservatoire de Paris . Further studies include those with Bruno Seidlhofer in Vienna and Carlo Zecchi in Rome.Performed solo or with orchestra in many musical centres in...
    
    
  • Label and catalog information: Timpani Records 1C1054 (1 CD, DDD
    SPARS Code
    SPARS is an acronym for the Society of Professional Audio Recording Services. The SPARS code is a three-letter code that appears on some Compact Disc recordings telling the consumer whether analog or digital equipment was used in producing the recording...
    
    , 64 min; released 1999)
  • Recording location and date: Salle Ion Vidu
    Ion Vidu
    Ion Vidu , was a Romanian composer and choral conductor. Under his influence the small town of Lugoj, which up until that time had not had much in the way of artistic institutions, became a well-known center of choral music in Romania....
    
    , Timişoara
    Timisoara
    Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
    
    , September 1998.
  • Note: Reviewed favorably by Michael Oliver in Gramophone.
• Jean Perrin
  Jean Perrin (composer)
  Jean Perrin was a Swiss composer and pianist. He composed in a neo-classical style, sometimes approaching polytonality, and his music shows the influence of Stravinsky and Poulenc....
  
   • Selected Works
  • Contents:
    • De Profundis, op. 26
      • Ioana Bentoiu, soprano
        Soprano
        A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
        
        
      • Lilliana Bizineche, contralto
        Contralto
        Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
        
        
      • Florin Diaconescu, tenor
        Tenor
        The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
        
        
      • Ion Tibrea, bass
        Bass (voice type)
        A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
        
        
    • Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 27
      • Alexandra Guţu, cello
        Cello
        The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
        
        
  • Conductor: Jean-François Antonioli
  • Label and catalog information: Claves CD50-9315 (1 CD, DDD, 73 min; also available as a digital download.)
  • Note: Reviewed by AW in Gramophone, April 1994.

External links

• Official site . Accessed 31 October 2009.