George Georgescu
Encyclopedia
George Georgescu was a Romanian
conductor. The moving force behind the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra
for decades beginning shortly after World War I, a protégé of Artur Nikisch and a close associate of George Enescu
, he received honors from the French and communist Romanian governments and lived to make recordings in the stereo
era.
, Tulcea County
, Romania
on September 12, 1887. His father, Leonte, was head of customs, and his mother, Elena, was the daughter of the captain of the port. As Leonte took up positions in various ports along the Danube
, the family moved to Galaţi
and then Giurgiu
. In Galaţi, the toddler George found and, placing it between his legs like a cello, began playing a violin that his father had won in a raffle; Leonte, who did not want his son to be a "fiddler," was not pleased, but nonetheless Georgescu began violin lessons at age five. Later, he would transfer his attention to the cello. While in elementary school, he composed a waltz that impressed the school's music teacher, who thereafter called on George as a substitute school choir director.
At age 18 Georgescu left from home and entered the Bucharest Conservatory
as a student of the double bass; the teachers there, quickly recognizing his musical gifts, arranged for his transfer to the cello
class of Constantin Dimitrescu
. As Georgescu's father refused to provide financial support for musical studies, Georgescu supported himself by singing in a church choir and playing in an operetta orchestra. When the conductor of the latter ensemble, Grigore Alexiu, was abruptly taken ill, the players chose Georgescu to take his place, giving Georgescu the opportunity to make his first impression as an orchestra conductor.
Following his graduation in 1911, Georgescu moved to Berlin
, having unexpectedly won a grant to study there through his performance in a recital at the Romanian Athenaeum
. He enrolled in the Berlin Hochschule für Musik
and continued his studies of cello
with the prominent cellist Hugo Becker
, as well as entering into studies of composition and conducting. Becker, much sought as a teacher, was reluctant at first, but in time, through Georgescu's persistence, recognized that Georgescu had the makings of an unusually fine, if not yet sufficiently disciplined, cellist. Later, Georgescu would credit Becker as the most important formative influence in his musical development. Georgescu began his professional career soon thereafter, replacing Becker in 1910 as cellist in the Marteau
Quartet. He performed throughout Europe with this group for the next four years.
. He was interned for a time in Berlin as an enemy alien; although the local artistic community quickly obtained his release, Georgescu was still obligated to contact the police twice daily. More seriously, as he traveled to an engagement in 1916, a railway carriage door was closed on his hand, causing a painful injury that ultimately precluded his further performance on the cello. As that chapter in his life closed, however, a new one opened; Richard Strauss
and Arthur Nikisch
both advised him to take up conducting, advice that he quickly followed after coaching with the latter. Not long after a private appearance as conductor at the home of Franz von Mendelssohn, Georgescu made his public debut in that capacity on February 15, 1918, leading the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
in Tchaikovsky
's Pathétique Symphony
, Grieg
's Piano Concerto
, and Richard Strauss
's Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks. There followed a year of performances with that ensemble, notable, inter alia, for including Claudio Arrau
's Berlin debut.
, who were both in attendance. King Ferdinand was honorary president of the Philharmonic Society; Georgescu was named artistic director of that body a year after his debut with the orchestra, by virtue of which appointment he became its permanent conductor. In 1922, pursuant to a directive from King Ferdinand to expand the orchestra by recruiting elite musicians from abroad, Georgescu traveled to Vienna, and through ensuing auditions he built the orchestra up to a hundred members.
Back in Bucharest, Georgescu rehearsed and trained the enlarged ensemble to a high standard, sufficient to attract internationally celebrated guest conductors such as Richard Strauss, Bruno Walter
, Felix Weingartner
, Oskar Nedbal
, and Gabriel Pierné
; notable soloists who played with the orchestra included Yehudi Menuhin
, Pablo Casals
, Alfred Cortot
, Wilhelm Backhaus
, Jacques Thibaud
, Arthur Rubinstein
, and Georgescu's young countryman Dinu Lipatti
. Repertoire was wide ranging. Naturally, it included works of Romanian composers such as Marcel Mihalovici
, Paul Constantinescu
, Mihail Jora
, and especially Georgescu's friend Georges Enescu. Otherwise, it ran the gamut from traditional masterworks in the central tradition to modern works by the likes of Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel
, Igor Stravinsky
, Béla Bartók
, and Vincent d'Indy
. In 1926, during a visit to Paris, Georgescu developed an association with Les Six
, further cementing his credentials as an exponent of modern literature. In recognition of his achievements, the French government created him an Officer of the Légion d'honneur
.
Georgescu—who by the end of his first year in Bucharest had already demonstrated strong command of choral works, particularly Beethoven
's Ninth Symphony
—did not restrict his musical activities to orchestral music; he immersed himself in many facets of Romanian musical life. In the first few years after assuming the Philharmonic's helm, he also organized the first Romanian ballet school. Moreover, from 1922 to 1926, 1930 to 1933, and 1939 to 1940 he led the Romanian Opera in Bucharest. As at the Philharmonic, he directed a wide-ranging repertoire, which, in addition to a heavy emphasis on the works of Wagner
, included Romanian works and more conventional fare such as Bizet's Carmen
; Gounod
's Faust
; Verdi
's Aida
; Puccini
's Tosca
, Manon Lescaut
, and La bohème
; Mozart
's The Magic Flute
; Beethoven’s Fidelio
; Richard Strauss's Salome
; Mussorgsky
's Boris Godunov
; and Tchaikovsky
's Queen of Spades
. Celebrated guest singers included the likes of Aureliano Pertile
, Maria Cebotari
, Tito Schipa
, and Feodor Chaliapin
; numbered among the conductors Georgescu invited to lead the opera company were Pietro Mascagni
, Felix Weingartner, and Clemens Krauss
. At the other musical extreme, Georgescu enjoyed meeting with an informal group of friends who played the cimbalom for evenings of folk music.
. One year after his first series of French appearances, he took the Bucharest Philharmonic to Istanbul
and Athens
. Georgescu also made guest appearances in Barcelona
, where he performed at the invitation of Pablo Casals
, and in Vienna
, where his interpretation of music by Richard Strauss drew approbation from the formidable critic Julius Korngold
. The most colorful of his ventures abroad, however, was his first visit to the United States
in 1926.
Georgescu had taken a leave of absence from the Bucharest Philharmonic and settled in Paris
, nominally to rest from his strenuous exertions of the immediately preceding years, although he nonetheless conducted concerts there with the Concerts Colonne
orchestra. When he went to the train station to pay his respects to Queen Maria of Romania, who was passing through the city en route to the United States, she insisted that he should go there as well, even though he had no engagements and no reputation there through which to obtain any. As luck would have it, however, in New York he took up lodgings in close proximity to and made the acquaintance of Arthur Judson
, manager of the New York Philharmonic
and representative of, among others, Arturo Toscanini
, who then shared the New York Philharmonic podium with Mengelberg. Thus, when issues of health compelled Toscanini to cancel his remaining appearances beginning in late 1926, Judson immediately thought of Georgescu as a potential replacement, albeit an unknown quantity. After obtaining reassurance from Richard Strauss, Judson recommended Georgescu for the position, and in December 1926 Georgescu made his US debut with the New York Philharmonic, scoring a critical success in music of Smetana
, Schubert
, and Richard Strauss. He would continue to conduct the orchestra for some months thereafter. Moreover, as in Romania, Georgescu offered his services in the cause of opera during his American sojourn. On January 20, 1927, he conducted a single performance of La bohème with the Washington National Opera
, a struggling semi-professional company active in the US capital from 1919 to 1936 and not to be confused with the present company of the same name. Probably recruited at short notice because of Jacques Samossoud's abrupt departure from the company over a contract dispute, Georgescu received favorable notice in The Washington Post, which likened his style of conducting to that of Leopold Stokowski
. Later, making his return to Europe, Georgescu traveled on the same ship as Toscanini, and the two former cellists developed a friendship.
If Georgescu went to America as an unknown quantity, his success there further enhanced his reputation at home, leading to numerous engagements throughout Europe over the next two decades. Of particular note, on January 6, 1933 he was the conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra when Henryk Szeryng
made his formal debut at age 14 playing Brahms
's Violin Concerto
. In November 1935, the two would again perform that work in Szeryng’s Romanian debut, this time with the Bucharest Philharmonic. The next day they repeated the performance at the royal palace for Queen Maria.
Georgescu also took his home orchestra on tour again, this time to the Eastern Mediterranean. Nor did he neglect his labors in the opera pit during travels abroad. He led performances of the unrevised Boris Godunov, then very much a novelty, in Italy, and he led Aida and La bohème in Berlin.
did little to slow Georgescu's activities at home or abroad. Georgescu took the Bucharest Philharmonic on a tour of Nazi-occupied countries to considerable critical acclaim. In 1942, he and the orchestra were recorded for the first time on the new medium of magnetic tape; the works performed were Enescu's First Symphony
and two Romanian Rhapsodies
. A year later, Georgescu presided over the concert debut of the Romanian pianist and composer Valentin Gheorghiu, then 15 years old.
Georgescu's fortunes, a largely unbroken string of successes for the preceding quarter century, would take a dramatically unfavorable turn in 1944, when Romania abruptly switched sides, joining the Allies
. On the strength of his participation in the Nazi cultural and propaganda machine, the authorities branded Georgescu a collaborator and barred him "for life" from conducting in Romania. Succeeding him at the Bucharest Philharmonic, after two brief caretaker regimes, was Constantin Silvestri
, whose conducting talents Georgescu himself had discovered a few years earlier. Moreover, the government confiscated property from Tutu's family and in the fall of 1944 arrested Constantin Busila, her adoptive father, who would die in prison five years later.
, ironically the same ensemble with which Silvestri had made his conductorial debut. At this time Georgescu also directed the Iaşi "Moldova" Philharmonic Orchestra, and his international career began to revive with invitations to conduct in Prague
and Kiev
. He also again began associating with opera, advocating the revised edition of Paul Constantinescu
's O noapte furtunoasa after its 1951 premiere during the Romanian Music Week. As their fortunes stabilized, the Georgescus opened their house to shelter destitute families and reached out to assist friends in distress.
Georgescu's exile from the Bucharest Philharmonic ended when Silvestri stepped down in 1953, leading to an invitation on December 11 for Georgescu to return as director. In 1955, he presided over the orchestra’s name change to honor his friend George Enescu, who had recently died an exile in France; henceforth, the orchestra would be the George Enescu Philharmonic.
In many ways, upon his return to the Philharmonic, Georgescu picked up where he had left off a decade earlier. He continued his painstaking work of orchestra building; his constant efforts to attract internationally recognized soloists, which led to collaborations with the likes of David Oistrakh
, Sviatoslav Richter
, and Yehudi Menuhin
; and his advocacy for younger Romanian talent, including Lola Bobescu, Valentin Gheorghiu
, Ştefan Gheorghiu
, Radu Aldulescu, Ştefan Ruha, and Ion Voicu
. Voicu, whom Mengelberg had first elevated from orchestral player to soloist in dramatic circumstances, gave his first performance with the Philharmonic in 1949 under Georgescu's direction, and when he performed with the same forces in Belgrade
in 1957, the cheering audience refused to leave the hall until threatened with firehoses; he would go on to become the orchestra's director for a decade beginning in 1972.
Georgescu's activities abroad, both with and without the Philharmonic, were not limited to Belgrade. Under his renewed direction, the orchestra traveled to Finland
; Sweden
; the Soviet Union
; Berlin; Dresden
; Vienna; and Athens, where it performed to great acclaim at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus
. It received a 25-minute ovation when it performed at the 1956 Autumn Festival in Warsaw, devoted to contemporary works.
Georgescu kept up an active schedule of guest appearances with orchestras in countries such as Italy, England, France, and Poland. In Hungary, Georgescu conducted for the first time in the presence of Zoltán Kodály
; upon hearing Georgescu in Prague
, Evgeny Mravinsky
hailed him as a leading exponent of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. In 1960, Georgescu returned to the United States, and on December 13, 14, and 15 of that year he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. The program included Prokofiev
's Symphony No. 1
, Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, and Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben
. The same US tour included engagements with the Cleveland
and Philadelphia
Orchestras and the New York Philharmonic. Three years later, Georgescu made his British debut at the Royal Festival Hall
.
Not all of Georgescu’s notable activities were conductorial. Before the American tour, for instance, Georgescu had already taken part in an event that greatly affected the United States. In 1958 he served as a member of the jury of the newly-created International Tchaikovsky Competition
, which, in a decision made more dramatic by the tensions of the Cold War
, awarded first prize to the young American Van Cliburn
. Although Cliburn's performance, featuring Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto
, is best remembered, having been commemorated shortly after the event in a best-selling contemporary record, the Russians also arranged a concert for their visitor Georgescu with fellow jurist Sviatoslav Richter.
Also in 1958, Georgescu, as a tribute to George Enescu, organized the first George Enescu Festival
, which remains a major Eastern European music festival and competition. Highlights included a performance of Bach's
Concerto for Two Violins
with Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh as soloists and a staging of Enescu’s sole opera, Œdipe, with Silvestri conducting.
Georgescu considered himself primarily a performing musician and did not pursue an academic career. Nonetheless, from 1950 to 1953 he did accept a position teaching the conducting class at the Bucharest Conservatory, where he had himself been a student nearly half a century earlier. His greater influence doubtless was through his support of young Romanian artists and his ceaseless efforts to build Romanian musical institutions of international caliber. Over the course of his career, he presided over the Romanian premieres of more than 400 works from the international literature and world premieres of more than 100 Romanian compositions, and he opened the way for other Romanian musicians, including Mihail Jora
and Jonel Perlea
. The Romanian government recognized his contributions by awarding him the Romanian State Prize in 1949 and 1957 and naming him a People's Artist of the Romanian People's Republic in 1954.
His last concert brought Georgescu full circle as he led the George Enescu Philharmonic in Berlin, the site of his conducting debut, in a program featuring violinist Christian Ferras
. He was already suffering the debilitating effects of a heart attack, and his end was not far off. Georgescu died in a Bucharest hospital on September 1, 1964.
, Georgescu found the process of making phonograph records uncongenial. The tedium of interruptions, retakes, trials to accommodate the setup of equipment, and the like were at odds with his temperament, which found greatest expressiveness when given free rein in the presence of an audience; moreover, he was concerned about the need for perfection when performances were fixed in a permanent medium. Unlike Celibidache, however, Georgescu did not benefit from extensive release of concert tapings; indeed many of his postwar broadcast tapes were erased. Thus, little of his art has been preserved in recordings.
Georgescu was represented during the 78 RPM era, when, for instance, he recorded Enescu's Poema Romana for HMV (AN 301, 12"). Unfortunately, death preempted plans, mediated by Toscanini's daughter Wally, for Georgescu to make records in 1963 and 1964 for RCA Victor
. Therefore, the centerpiece of his recorded legacy is a complete stereo cycle of Beethoven symphonies with the George Enescu Philharmonic recorded by Electrecord
in 1960, with later LP issues as Intercord 976 and Lingen Köln 1124; a compact disc
release on Lys 485-490 apparently was dubbed from the Electrecord LPs. Also of importance, given his closeness to the composer, is the recording of Enescu's First Symphony; after a performance of this work under Georgescu's direction in 1925, Enescu wrote Georgescu a letter marking the occasion as only the third or fourth time in his career that he had been understood. Otherwise, at least in the English-speaking world, Georgescu's name appears on CD primarily in connection with other, better-remembered musicians, as in his direction of the USSR State Orchestra partnering Sviatoslav Richter
in a performance of Schumann
's Piano Concerto in A Minor
.
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
conductor. The moving force behind the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra
George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra
The George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra is a musical institution of Romania.Founded in 1886, under the supervision of Eduard Wachman, the Romanian Philharmonic Society had as purpose the creation of a permanent symphonic orchestra in Bucharest...
for decades beginning shortly after World War I, a protégé of Artur Nikisch and a close associate of 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...
, he received honors from the French and communist Romanian governments and lived to make recordings in the stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
era.
Education and career as soloist
Georgescu was born in the river port of SulinaSulina
Sulina is a town and free port in Tulcea County, Romania, at the mouth of the Sulina branch of the Danube. It is the easternmost point of Romania and of the continental European Union.-History:...
, Tulcea County
Tulcea County
Tulcea is a county of Romania, in the historical region Dobruja, with the capital city at Tulcea.-Demographics:In 2002, Tulcea County had a population of 256,492...
, 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...
on September 12, 1887. His father, Leonte, was head of customs, and his mother, Elena, was the daughter of the captain of the port. As Leonte took up positions in various ports along the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, the family moved to Galaţi
Galati
Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....
and then Giurgiu
Giurgiu
Giurgiu is the capital city of Giurgiu County, Romania, in the Greater Wallachia. It is situated amid mud-flats and marshes on the left bank of the Danube facing the Bulgarian city of Rousse on the opposite bank. Three small islands face the city, and a larger one shelters its port, Smarda...
. In Galaţi, the toddler George found and, placing it between his legs like a cello, began playing a violin that his father had won in a raffle; Leonte, who did not want his son to be a "fiddler," was not pleased, but nonetheless Georgescu began violin lessons at age five. Later, he would transfer his attention to the cello. While in elementary school, he composed a waltz that impressed the school's music teacher, who thereafter called on George as a substitute school choir director.
At age 18 Georgescu left from home and entered the Bucharest Conservatory
National University of Music Bucharest
The National University of Music Bucharest is a university-level school of music located in Bucharest, Romania. Established as a school of music in 1863 and reorganized as an academy in 1931, it has functioned as a public university since 2001...
as a student of the double bass; the teachers there, quickly recognizing his musical gifts, arranged for his transfer to the 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...
class of Constantin Dimitrescu
Constantin Dimitrescu
Constantin Dimitrescu was a Romanian classic composer and music teacher, one of the most prominent representatives of the late Romantic period.-Background:...
. As Georgescu's father refused to provide financial support for musical studies, Georgescu supported himself by singing in a church choir and playing in an operetta orchestra. When the conductor of the latter ensemble, Grigore Alexiu, was abruptly taken ill, the players chose Georgescu to take his place, giving Georgescu the opportunity to make his first impression as an orchestra conductor.
Following his graduation in 1911, Georgescu moved to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, having unexpectedly won a grant to study there through his performance in a recital at the Romanian Athenaeum
Romanian Athenaeum
The Romanian Athenaeum is a concert hall in the center of Bucharest, Romania and a landmark of the Romanian capital city. Opened in 1888, the ornate, domed, circular building is the city's main concert hall and home of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic and of the George Enescu annual international...
. He enrolled in the Berlin Hochschule für Musik
Berlin University of the Arts
The Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK is a public art school in Berlin, Germany, one of the four universities in the city...
and continued his studies of 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...
with the prominent cellist Hugo Becker
Hugo Becker
for french actor see Hugo BeckerHugo Becker was a prominent German cellist, cello teacher, and composer. He studied at a young age with Alfredo Piatti, and later Friedrich Grützmacher in Dresden.He was born in 1863 in Strasbourg; his father Jean Becker was a famous violinist...
, as well as entering into studies of composition and conducting. Becker, much sought as a teacher, was reluctant at first, but in time, through Georgescu's persistence, recognized that Georgescu had the makings of an unusually fine, if not yet sufficiently disciplined, cellist. Later, Georgescu would credit Becker as the most important formative influence in his musical development. Georgescu began his professional career soon thereafter, replacing Becker in 1910 as cellist in the Marteau
Henri Marteau
Henri Marteau was a French violinist and composer.-Life and career:He was born in Reims, France. He was of German-French mixture. His father was a well known amateur violinist of that city, and took a great interest in musical affairs. His mother was an excellent pianist, who had studied under...
Quartet. He performed throughout Europe with this group for the next four years.
Career change and the Interwar Years
Georgescu’s career as a cellist came to an end late in World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He was interned for a time in Berlin as an enemy alien; although the local artistic community quickly obtained his release, Georgescu was still obligated to contact the police twice daily. More seriously, as he traveled to an engagement in 1916, a railway carriage door was closed on his hand, causing a painful injury that ultimately precluded his further performance on the cello. As that chapter in his life closed, however, a new one opened; Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
and Arthur Nikisch
Arthur Nikisch
Arthur Nikisch ; 12 October 185523 January 1922) was a Hungarian conductor who performed internationally, holding posts in Boston, London and - most importantly - Berlin. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Liszt...
both advised him to take up conducting, advice that he quickly followed after coaching with the latter. Not long after a private appearance as conductor at the home of Franz von Mendelssohn, Georgescu made his public debut in that capacity on February 15, 1918, leading the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
The Berlin Philharmonic, German: , formerly Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the...
in Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Pathétique Symphony
Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)
The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, Pathétique is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's final completed symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The composer led the first performance in Saint Petersburg on 16/28 October of that year, nine days before his death...
, Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
's Piano Concerto
Piano Concerto (Grieg)
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and among the most popular of all piano concerti.-Structure :The concerto is in three movements:...
, and Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks. There followed a year of performances with that ensemble, notable, inter alia, for including Claudio Arrau
Claudio Arrau
Claudio Arrau León was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning from the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms and Debussy...
's Berlin debut.
Return to Romania
Georgescu continued his association with the Berlin Philharmonic through 1919, but in early 1920 he answered a patriotic call and returned to Romania. Dimitrie Dinicu, conductor of the Bucharest Philharmonic, had fallen seriously ill and asked Georgescu to replace him. Acceding to that request, Georgescu on January 4, 1920 led the first of what would be 22 concerts that year and hundreds over the next four decades with the orchestra. During this Romanian debut, the young maestro made a great impression on the Romanian king and queen, Ferdinand I and MariaMarie of Edinburgh
Marie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
, who were both in attendance. King Ferdinand was honorary president of the Philharmonic Society; Georgescu was named artistic director of that body a year after his debut with the orchestra, by virtue of which appointment he became its permanent conductor. In 1922, pursuant to a directive from King Ferdinand to expand the orchestra by recruiting elite musicians from abroad, Georgescu traveled to Vienna, and through ensuing auditions he built the orchestra up to a hundred members.
Back in Bucharest, Georgescu rehearsed and trained the enlarged ensemble to a high standard, sufficient to attract internationally celebrated guest conductors such as Richard Strauss, 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...
, Felix Weingartner
Felix Weingartner
Paul Felix von Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist.-Biography:...
, Oskar Nedbal
Oskar Nedbal
Oskar Nedbal was a Czech violist, composer, and conductor of classical music.-Life:Nedbal was born in Tábor, in southern Bohemia. He studied the violin at the Prague Conservatory under Antonín Bennewitz...
, and Gabriel Pierné
Gabriel Pierné
Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné was a French composer, conductor, and organist.-Biography:Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz in 1863. His family moved to Paris to escape the Franco-Prussian War. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, gaining first prizes for solfège, piano, organ, counterpoint and fugue...
; notable soloists who played with the orchestra included 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...
, 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...
, Alfred Cortot
Alfred Cortot
Alfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...
, Wilhelm Backhaus
Wilhelm Backhaus
Wilhelm Backhaus was a German pianist and pedagogue.Born in Leipzig, Backhaus studied at the conservatoire there with Alois Reckendorf until 1899, later taking private piano lessons with Eugen d'Albert in Frankfurt...
, 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...
, Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...
, and Georgescu's young countryman Dinu Lipatti
Dinu Lipatti
Dinu Lipatti was a Romanian classical pianist and composer whose career was cut short by his death from Hodgkin's disease at age 33. He was elected posthumously to the Romanian Academy.-Biography:...
. Repertoire was wide ranging. Naturally, it included works of Romanian composers such as Marcel Mihalovici
Marcel Mihalovici
Marcel Mihalovici was a French composer born in Romania. He was discovered by George Enescu in Bucharest. He moved to Paris in 1919 to study under Vincent d'Indy...
, Paul Constantinescu
Paul Constantinescu
Paul Constantinescu was a Romanian composer.-Major works:*Piano concerto*Violin concerto*Symphony No.1*The Nativity *A stormy night *Pana Lesnea Rusalim...
, Mihail Jora
Mihail Jora
Mihail Jora was a Romanian composer, pianist, and conductor.Jora studied in Leipzig with Robert Teichmüller. From 1929 to 1962 he was a professor at the conservatoire of Bucharest. He worked 1928 to 1933 as a director/conductor of the Broadcasting Orchestra in Bucharest...
, and especially Georgescu's friend Georges Enescu. Otherwise, it ran the gamut from traditional masterworks in the central tradition to modern works by the likes of Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
, Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, 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 Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...
. In 1926, during a visit to Paris, Georgescu developed an association with Les Six
Les Six
Les six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1920 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled "" to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against the musical style of Richard Wagner and impressionist music.-Members:Formally, the Groupe des...
, further cementing his credentials as an exponent of modern literature. In recognition of his achievements, the French government created him an Officer of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
.
Georgescu—who by the end of his first year in Bucharest had already demonstrated strong command of choral works, particularly Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
—did not restrict his musical activities to orchestral music; he immersed himself in many facets of Romanian musical life. In the first few years after assuming the Philharmonic's helm, he also organized the first Romanian ballet school. Moreover, from 1922 to 1926, 1930 to 1933, and 1939 to 1940 he led the Romanian Opera in Bucharest. As at the Philharmonic, he directed a wide-ranging repertoire, which, in addition to a heavy emphasis on the works of Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, included Romanian works and more conventional fare such as Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
; Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
; Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
; Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Manon Lescaut is an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini. The story is based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost....
, and La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
; Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
; Beethoven’s Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
; Richard Strauss's Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
; Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
; and Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
. Celebrated guest singers included the likes of Aureliano Pertile
Aureliano Pertile
Aureliano Pertile was an Italian lyric-dramatic tenor. He is considered to have been one of the most exciting operatic artists of the inter-war period, and one of the most important tenors of the entire 20th century.- Life and career :Pertile was born in Montagnana, Northern Italy, 18 days after...
, Maria Cebotari
Maria Cebotari
Maria Cebotari was a celebrated Moldavian soprano and actress born in Bessarabia, Russian Empire , who made her career in Germany & Austria.-Biography:...
, Tito Schipa
Tito Schipa
Tito Schipa was an Italian tenor. He is considered one of the finest tenori di grazia in operatic history...
, and Feodor Chaliapin
Feodor Chaliapin
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was a Russian opera singer. The possessor of a large and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.During the first phase...
; numbered among the conductors Georgescu invited to lead the opera company were Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
, Felix Weingartner, and Clemens Krauss
Clemens Krauss
Clemens Heinrich Krauss was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss.-Biography:...
. At the other musical extreme, Georgescu enjoyed meeting with an informal group of friends who played the cimbalom for evenings of folk music.
Activities abroad
Although from 1920 Georgescu always centered his activities in Romania, and particularly on the Bucharest Philharmonic, he was also active abroad, over time building an enviable international reputation. As early as 1921, he conducted a series of concerts in France to enthusiastic reviews; he would return in 1926 and again in 1929, in the latter instance substituting for an indisposed Willem MengelbergWillem Mengelberg
Joseph Willem Mengelberg was a Dutch conductor, famous for his performances of Mahler and Strauss with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.- Biography :...
. One year after his first series of French appearances, he took the Bucharest Philharmonic to Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
and Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. Georgescu also made guest appearances in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, where he performed at the invitation of 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 in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, where his interpretation of music by Richard Strauss drew approbation from the formidable critic Julius Korngold
Julius Korngold
Julius Korngold was a noted music critic. He was regarded as the top critic in Vienna in the early twentieth century, when that city was viewed as the centre of classical music. He is most notable for championing the works of Gustav Mahler at a time when many did not think much of him...
. The most colorful of his ventures abroad, however, was his first visit to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1926.
Georgescu had taken a leave of absence from the Bucharest Philharmonic and settled in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, nominally to rest from his strenuous exertions of the immediately preceding years, although he nonetheless conducted concerts there with the Concerts Colonne
Concerts Colonne
The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne.-History:While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead a series of popular concerts which he founded under the...
orchestra. When he went to the train station to pay his respects to Queen Maria of Romania, who was passing through the city en route to the United States, she insisted that he should go there as well, even though he had no engagements and no reputation there through which to obtain any. As luck would have it, however, in New York he took up lodgings in close proximity to and made the acquaintance of Arthur Judson
Arthur Judson
Arthur Leon Judson was an artists' manager who also managed the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra...
, manager of the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
and representative of, among others, Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
, who then shared the New York Philharmonic podium with Mengelberg. Thus, when issues of health compelled Toscanini to cancel his remaining appearances beginning in late 1926, Judson immediately thought of Georgescu as a potential replacement, albeit an unknown quantity. After obtaining reassurance from Richard Strauss, Judson recommended Georgescu for the position, and in December 1926 Georgescu made his US debut with the New York Philharmonic, scoring a critical success in music of Smetana
Bedrich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...
, Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, and Richard Strauss. He would continue to conduct the orchestra for some months thereafter. Moreover, as in Romania, Georgescu offered his services in the cause of opera during his American sojourn. On January 20, 1927, he conducted a single performance of La bohème with the Washington National Opera
Washington National Opera (1919–1936)
For the present company of the same name, see Washington National Opera.The Washington National Opera Association, founded in 1919 as "Washington Community Opera", was a low-budget opera company, comprising professional principals supported by amateurs, active in Washington, DC until 1936; it was...
, a struggling semi-professional company active in the US capital from 1919 to 1936 and not to be confused with the present company of the same name. Probably recruited at short notice because of Jacques Samossoud's abrupt departure from the company over a contract dispute, Georgescu received favorable notice in The Washington Post, which likened his style of conducting to that of Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
. Later, making his return to Europe, Georgescu traveled on the same ship as Toscanini, and the two former cellists developed a friendship.
If Georgescu went to America as an unknown quantity, his success there further enhanced his reputation at home, leading to numerous engagements throughout Europe over the next two decades. Of particular note, on January 6, 1933 he was the conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra when Henryk Szeryng
Henryk Szeryng
Henryk Szeryng was a Polish violinist.-Early years:He was born in Żelazowa Wola, Poland on 22 September 1918 into a wealthy family....
made his formal debut at age 14 playing 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...
's Violin Concerto
Violin Concerto (Brahms)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 is a violin concerto in three movements composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim...
. In November 1935, the two would again perform that work in Szeryng’s Romanian debut, this time with the Bucharest Philharmonic. The next day they repeated the performance at the royal palace for Queen Maria.
Georgescu also took his home orchestra on tour again, this time to the Eastern Mediterranean. Nor did he neglect his labors in the opera pit during travels abroad. He led performances of the unrevised Boris Godunov, then very much a novelty, in Italy, and he led Aida and La bohème in Berlin.
Personal life
Georgescu was attractive to women, and for a time in 1920 even exchanged love letters with Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Queen Maria, although for reasons of state their relationship was quashed. In 1933, by now already a widower, Georgescu married Florica Oroveanu. She was the adoptive daughter of the Minister of Public Works Constantine Busila and descended from Romanian aristocracy. Aged only 18, she was 25 years Georgescu’s junior, and the marriage rook place only after the couple overcame three years of opposition by her family. Tutu Georgescu, as she was known, would remain Georgescu's wife and staunch supporter for the rest of his life and would publish two volumes of memoirs devoted to preserving the memory of his art. Recognized as a musicologist in her own right, she outlived him by more than four decades, dying in 2008 at age 95.World War II and its aftermath
Romania's entry into World War II as an ally of Nazi GermanyGermany
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...
did little to slow Georgescu's activities at home or abroad. Georgescu took the Bucharest Philharmonic on a tour of Nazi-occupied countries to considerable critical acclaim. In 1942, he and the orchestra were recorded for the first time on the new medium of magnetic tape; the works performed were Enescu's First Symphony
Symphony No. 1 (Enescu)
Symphony No. 1, Op. 13 in E♭ by the Romanian composer George Enescu reflects the composer's training in both Vienna and Paris. In the former location he studied the Brahmsian tradition with Robert Fuchs, and in the latter the French tradition with Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré .The symphony...
and two Romanian Rhapsodies
Romanian Rhapsodies (Enescu)
The two Romanian Rhapsodies, Op. 11, for orchestra, are George Enescu's best-known compositions. They were both written in 1901, and first performed together in 1903. The two rhapsodies, and particularly the first, have long held a permanent place in the repertory of every major orchestra. They...
. A year later, Georgescu presided over the concert debut of the Romanian pianist and composer Valentin Gheorghiu, then 15 years old.
Georgescu's fortunes, a largely unbroken string of successes for the preceding quarter century, would take a dramatically unfavorable turn in 1944, when Romania abruptly switched sides, joining the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
. On the strength of his participation in the Nazi cultural and propaganda machine, the authorities branded Georgescu a collaborator and barred him "for life" from conducting in Romania. Succeeding him at the Bucharest Philharmonic, after two brief caretaker regimes, was Constantin Silvestri
Constantin Silvestri
-Early life:Silvestri, born of Austro-Italian-Romanian stock, was brought up on his own by his mother, his father dying from alcoholism and his stepfather dying when the boy was 16. He had learnt how to play the piano and organ before the age of 6. He played the piano in public at 10 and was a...
, whose conducting talents Georgescu himself had discovered a few years earlier. Moreover, the government confiscated property from Tutu's family and in the fall of 1944 arrested Constantin Busila, her adoptive father, who would die in prison five years later.
Later career
Only in 1947 would Georgescu begin to reconstruct his life and career as, with the intercession of his friend George Enescu, he was named director of the National Radio Orchestra of RomaniaNational Radio Orchestra of Romania
National Radio Orchestra of Romania is the Romanian National symphony orchestra.- History :* National Radio Orchestra was founded in 1928 by the composer and conductor Mihail Jora and is the principal ensemble of the Musical ensembles of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Society.- Chief conductors...
, ironically the same ensemble with which Silvestri had made his conductorial debut. At this time Georgescu also directed the Iaşi "Moldova" Philharmonic Orchestra, and his international career began to revive with invitations to conduct in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
. He also again began associating with opera, advocating the revised edition of Paul Constantinescu
Paul Constantinescu
Paul Constantinescu was a Romanian composer.-Major works:*Piano concerto*Violin concerto*Symphony No.1*The Nativity *A stormy night *Pana Lesnea Rusalim...
's O noapte furtunoasa after its 1951 premiere during the Romanian Music Week. As their fortunes stabilized, the Georgescus opened their house to shelter destitute families and reached out to assist friends in distress.
Georgescu's exile from the Bucharest Philharmonic ended when Silvestri stepped down in 1953, leading to an invitation on December 11 for Georgescu to return as director. In 1955, he presided over the orchestra’s name change to honor his friend George Enescu, who had recently died an exile in France; henceforth, the orchestra would be the George Enescu Philharmonic.
In many ways, upon his return to the Philharmonic, Georgescu picked up where he had left off a decade earlier. He continued his painstaking work of orchestra building; his constant efforts to attract internationally recognized soloists, which led to collaborations with the likes of David Oistrakh
David Oistrakh
David Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....
, Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet pianist well known for the depth of his interpretations, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Childhood:...
, and 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...
; and his advocacy for younger Romanian talent, including Lola Bobescu, Valentin Gheorghiu
Valentin Gheorghiu
Valentin Gheorghiu is a Romanian classical pianist and composer.-Biography:Gheorghiu was born in Galaţi, Romania in 1928. He was first a pupil of Constanţa Erbiceanu at the Bucharest Academy of Music and then of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire National de Musique in Paris, France...
, Ştefan Gheorghiu
Stefan Gheorghiu (violinist)
Ştefan Gheorghiu is a Romanian musician, violinist and teacher, born in Galați, Romania in 1926.At 5 he starts studying the violin and at 9 becomes student of the Royal Music Academy in Bucharest....
, Radu Aldulescu, Ştefan Ruha, and Ion Voicu
Ion Voicu
Ion Voicu was a Romanian violinist and orchestral conductor of Romani ethnicity. In 1969 he founded the award-winning Bucharest Chamber Orchestra, which is now conducted by his son Mădălin Voicu....
. Voicu, whom Mengelberg had first elevated from orchestral player to soloist in dramatic circumstances, gave his first performance with the Philharmonic in 1949 under Georgescu's direction, and when he performed with the same forces in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
in 1957, the cheering audience refused to leave the hall until threatened with firehoses; he would go on to become the orchestra's director for a decade beginning in 1972.
Georgescu's activities abroad, both with and without the Philharmonic, were not limited to Belgrade. Under his renewed direction, the orchestra traveled to Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
; Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
; the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
; Berlin; Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
; Vienna; and Athens, where it performed to great acclaim at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre structure located on the south slope of the Acropolis of Athens. It was built in 161 AD by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla...
. It received a 25-minute ovation when it performed at the 1956 Autumn Festival in Warsaw, devoted to contemporary works.
Georgescu kept up an active schedule of guest appearances with orchestras in countries such as Italy, England, France, and Poland. In Hungary, Georgescu conducted for the first time in the presence of Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
; upon hearing Georgescu in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Evgeny Mravinsky
Evgeny Mravinsky
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Mravinsky was a Russian/Soviet conductor.-Life and career:Mravinsky was born in Saint Petersburg. The soprano Yevgeniya Mravina was his aunt. His father died in 1918, and in that same year, he began to work backstage at the Mariinsky Theatre. He first studied biology at...
hailed him as a leading exponent of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. In 1960, Georgescu returned to the United States, and on December 13, 14, and 15 of that year he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. The program included Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's Symphony No. 1
Symphony No. 1 (Prokofiev)
Sergei Prokofiev began work on his Symphony No. 1 in D major in 1916, but wrote most of it in 1917, finishing work on September 10. It is written in loose imitation of the style of Haydn , and is widely known as the Classical Symphony, a name given to it by the composer...
, Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, and Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben
Ein Heldenleben
Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss. The work was completed in 1898, and heralds the composer's more mature period in this genre...
. The same US tour included engagements with the Cleveland
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
and Philadelphia
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
Orchestras and the New York Philharmonic. Three years later, Georgescu made his British debut at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
.
Not all of Georgescu’s notable activities were conductorial. Before the American tour, for instance, Georgescu had already taken part in an event that greatly affected the United States. In 1958 he served as a member of the jury of the newly-created International Tchaikovsky Competition
International Tchaikovsky Competition
The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a classical music competition held every four years in Moscow, Russia for pianists, violinists, and cellists between 16 and 30 years of age, and singers between 19 and 32 years of age...
, which, in a decision made more dramatic by the tensions of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, awarded first prize to the young American Van Cliburn
Van Cliburn
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at age 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War....
. Although Cliburn's performance, featuring Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)
The Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between November 1874 and February 1875. It was revised in the summer of 1879 and again in December 1888. The first version received heavy criticism from Nikolai Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky's desired pianist....
, is best remembered, having been commemorated shortly after the event in a best-selling contemporary record, the Russians also arranged a concert for their visitor Georgescu with fellow jurist Sviatoslav Richter.
Also in 1958, Georgescu, as a tribute to George Enescu, organized the first George Enescu Festival
George Enescu Festival
The George Enescu Festival , held in honor of the celebrated Romanian composer George Enescu, is the biggest classical music festival and classical international competition held in Romania and one of the biggest in Eastern Europe...
, which remains a major Eastern European music festival and competition. Highlights included a performance of Bach's
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
Concerto for Two Violins
Double Violin Concerto (Bach)
The Concerto for 2 Violins, Strings and Continuo in D Minor, BWV 1043, also known as the Double Violin Concerto or "Bach Double", is perhaps one of the most famous works by J. S. Bach and considered among the best examples of the work of the late Baroque period. Bach wrote it between 1730 and 1731...
with Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh as soloists and a staging of Enescu’s sole opera, Œdipe, with Silvestri conducting.
Georgescu considered himself primarily a performing musician and did not pursue an academic career. Nonetheless, from 1950 to 1953 he did accept a position teaching the conducting class at the Bucharest Conservatory, where he had himself been a student nearly half a century earlier. His greater influence doubtless was through his support of young Romanian artists and his ceaseless efforts to build Romanian musical institutions of international caliber. Over the course of his career, he presided over the Romanian premieres of more than 400 works from the international literature and world premieres of more than 100 Romanian compositions, and he opened the way for other Romanian musicians, including Mihail Jora
Mihail Jora
Mihail Jora was a Romanian composer, pianist, and conductor.Jora studied in Leipzig with Robert Teichmüller. From 1929 to 1962 he was a professor at the conservatoire of Bucharest. He worked 1928 to 1933 as a director/conductor of the Broadcasting Orchestra in Bucharest...
and Jonel Perlea
Jonel Perlea
Jonel Perlea was a Romanian conductor particularly associated with the Italian and German opera repertories.Born Ionel Perlea in Ograda, Romania, he studied in Munich, then in Leipzig. He made his debut at a concert in Bucharest in 1919, then worked as répétiteur in Leipzig and Rostock...
. The Romanian government recognized his contributions by awarding him the Romanian State Prize in 1949 and 1957 and naming him a People's Artist of the Romanian People's Republic in 1954.
His last concert brought Georgescu full circle as he led the George Enescu Philharmonic in Berlin, the site of his conducting debut, in a program featuring violinist Christian Ferras
Christian Ferras
Christian Ferras was a French violinist.Ferras was born at Le Touquet in 1933. He began studying the violin with his father, who was a pupil of Marcel Chailley. He entered the Conservatoire de Nice as a student of Charles Bistesi in 1941, and in 1943 obtained the First Prize. In 1944 he went to...
. He was already suffering the debilitating effects of a heart attack, and his end was not far off. Georgescu died in a Bucharest hospital on September 1, 1964.
George Georgescu Contest
In honor of Georgescu's memory, teachers at the Arts High School in Tulcea started organizing a Contest for Performing Artists in his name in 1992; it has taken place annually ever since. At first it was open only to Romanian music school and high school students, but in 1995 it was opened to international students as well and has come to be regarded as an important fixture on the Romanian musical landscape. Organizers include the Romanian Ministry of Education and Youth, the School Inspectorate of Tulcea County, the Tulcea County Council, the Tulcea Mayoralty, and surviving members of Georgescu's family.Recordings
Like his countryman Sergiu CelibidacheSergiu Celibidache
- Biography :Celibidache was born in Roman, Romania, and began his studies in music with the piano, after which he studied music, philosophy and mathematics in Bucharest, Romania and then in Paris...
, Georgescu found the process of making phonograph records uncongenial. The tedium of interruptions, retakes, trials to accommodate the setup of equipment, and the like were at odds with his temperament, which found greatest expressiveness when given free rein in the presence of an audience; moreover, he was concerned about the need for perfection when performances were fixed in a permanent medium. Unlike Celibidache, however, Georgescu did not benefit from extensive release of concert tapings; indeed many of his postwar broadcast tapes were erased. Thus, little of his art has been preserved in recordings.
Georgescu was represented during the 78 RPM era, when, for instance, he recorded Enescu's Poema Romana for HMV (AN 301, 12"). Unfortunately, death preempted plans, mediated by Toscanini's daughter Wally, for Georgescu to make records in 1963 and 1964 for RCA Victor
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
. Therefore, the centerpiece of his recorded legacy is a complete stereo cycle of Beethoven symphonies with the George Enescu Philharmonic recorded by Electrecord
Electrecord
Electrecord is a Romanian record label founded in 1932. It served as the only record label in Communist Romania. It was then transformed into the national recording company, following the centralization-oriented socialist doctrine...
in 1960, with later LP issues as Intercord 976 and Lingen Köln 1124; a compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
release on Lys 485-490 apparently was dubbed from the Electrecord LPs. Also of importance, given his closeness to the composer, is the recording of Enescu's First Symphony; after a performance of this work under Georgescu's direction in 1925, Enescu wrote Georgescu a letter marking the occasion as only the third or fourth time in his career that he had been understood. Otherwise, at least in the English-speaking world, Georgescu's name appears on CD primarily in connection with other, better-remembered musicians, as in his direction of the USSR State Orchestra partnering Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet pianist well known for the depth of his interpretations, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Childhood:...
in a performance of Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's Piano Concerto in A Minor
Piano Concerto (Schumann)
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54, is a famous Romantic concerto by Robert Schumann, completed in 1845.Schumann had begun several piano concerti before this one: In 1828, he had begun one in E-flat major; from 1829-31 he worked on one in F major, and in 1839, he wrote one movement of a concerto...
.
Quotations
External links
- http://www.plural-magazine.com/article_letters_to_g_georgescu.html A collection of mostly undated letters to and about Georgescu by various noted musicians. Included are one from Igor StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
asking Georgescu to make arrangements for a hotel room and one from Richard Strauss, dated 1943, asking Georgescu to send him gasoline for his car. - http://souvenirsdescarpates.blogspot.com/2007/12/discographie-georgescu.html Georgescu discography (text in French).