George Georgescu (September 12, 1887 – September 1, 1964) Born in Sulina, in 1887, George Georgescu showed remarkable aptitudes for music ever since a secondary school student. He taught himself violin and acted, time and again, as the school choir conductor, substituting for the music teacher. In Galati, where the family later moved, he found a violin hidden in a corner of the house and tried his hand at playing all sorts of tunes — hiding away from his father, who didn’t want a "fiddler” for a son. At the age of 18, he ran away from Giurgiu (where his father was then working) to Bucharest.
After graduating high school, he began attending, despite his parents’ disapproval, the Bucharest Conservatory, to study the violoncello under Constantin Dimitrescu. At the same time, he studied theory and solfege with Dimitrie Kiriac, and harmony and counterpoint with Alfonso Castaldi. After graduating, George Georgescu left for Berlin, with a view to perfecting his skills.
In the German capital, he continued his musical education at Hochschule, where he studied with the famous cellist Hugo Becker, who was soon to give up his place in the Marteau quartet to George Georgescu. With this quartet, Georgescu would perform in various countries throughout Europe for a period of four years.
During World War I, he was treated as a prisoner and confined to house arrest.
In 1916, an accident forced him to give up the violoncello. Richard Strauss and Nikisch advised him to make a career as a conductor.
On February 15, 1918 George Georgescu made his triumphant debut on the podium of the Berlin Philharmonic. On the programme: Symphony No. 6, the Pathétique, by Tchaikovsky, Grieg’s Piano Concerto and the symphonic poem "Till Eulenspiegel” by Strauss.
The great success that he enjoyed while conducting the Berlin Philharmonic helped George Georgescu definitively embark upon this career. A few years later, the young maestro would enjoy fame and recognition as one of the great conductors of the age. He successfully conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in 1919, and, on January 4, 1920, George Georgescu made his debut in Bucharest, at the Romanian Athenaeum. This success was followed, the same year, by other 22 concerts in the Romanian capital city.
In 1921, George Georgescu becomes the artistic director of the Philharmonic Society, whose honorific president was King Ferdinand. A year later, he had the initiative of reorganising the Bucharest Philharmonic; what he had in mind was a full-size orchestra and 3 concerts a week. Director and, at the same time, permanent conductor of the Bucharest Philharmonic, George Georgescu would shortly become the soul of the new orchestra. From the inaugural concert of January 4, 1920 until the maestro’s death, the Philharmonic and George Georgescu had been one. Year after year, hundreds of concerts resounded at the sign of his baton. Primarily an artist of the podium or of the stand, it was only in his later years that George Georgescu undertook teaching, accepting to take the conducting class of the Bucharest Conservatory between 1950 and 1953.
After the concert that took place on November 25, 1925, featuring George Enescu’s First Symphony, the composer wrote: "My dear Georgescu, it is for the third or fourth time in my life as composer, which began about 24 years ago — that I have experienced the true feeling of untold sweetness, that the composer delights in when he realises that he has, finally, been understood, and witnesses his work performed with faith… I dare say, with love! I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I thank all the gents in the orchestra. Long may you live, to the joy of Romanians and musicians.”
From 1922 to 1926, George Georgescu held the office of director of the Opera and brought to Bucharest some of the best singers of the time: Tito Schipa Şaliapin.
During the same period he organised the first Romanian school of ballet.
In 1926, in Paris, George Georgescu was accepted as a member of the famous group known as "Les Six” ("The Six”): Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and the others.
Between 1926 and 1927 George Georgescu took up Arturo Toscanini’s baton and conducted The New York Philharmonic and the Opera Orchestra of Washington. Once back in Romania, he returned to his position of director of the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra, which he held until 1944.
At the same time he filled in the position of director of the Romanian Opera. All these years proved very beneficial for both George Georgescu’s career and the Bucharest Philharmonic, which developed into one of the best orchestras in the world, hosting an impressive record of composers and instrumentalists: Richard Strauss, Ravel, Mascagni, Stravinski, Bartok, Vincent d’Indy, George Enescu, Paul Constantinescu, Marcel Mihalovici, Dinu Lipatti, Menuhin, Casals, Cortot, Backhaus, Thibaud, Rubinstein.
As a token of high regard, the French government would award him with the Legion of Honour.
As of 1944, George Georgescu was "banished” from the podium "for life”, because he had committed the "crime of performing German music”. In 1947, as a result of George Enescu’s authoritative intercession, Georgescu was allowed to return on the podium, but only as conductor of the Radio Orchestra, and not of the Philharmonic.
In 1954, George Georgescu accepted again the position of director of the Philharmonic, which he held until 1964. It was during this time that he organised the first "George Enescu” Festivals. He managed to bring to Bucharest Richter, David Oistrach, Yehudi Menuhin and brought out Lola Bobescu, Valentin Gheorghiu, Ion Voicu, Radu Aldulescu, Ştefan Ruha. During the same period, he resumed his personal tours in Italy, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, England, the United States, and took the Philharmonic to Berliner Fesstage, Dresden, Vienna and Athens, where it enjoyed, in the Great Herod Atticus Amphitheater, a tremendous success.
He held his last concert in Berlin, the city where he had begun his career. George Georgescu died in Bucharest, on September 1, 1964.
George Georgescu belongs to the great family of outstanding conductors of the twentieth century. The universal history of the interpretive art places him alongside legendary names, such as: Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Leopold Stokowski, Karl Bohm, Herbert von Karajan, Sergiu Celibidache.
Within the boundaries of his native country, he is acknowledged as the "master” of the Romanian art of conducting.
All in all, Georgescu’s career as conductor appears very impressive: 400 first hearings from the international repertoire and over 100 absolute first hearings of Romanian works, collaborations with 52 symphonic orchestras and 150 Romanian and foreign soloists, dozens of tours in the United States, England, France, Italy, Germany, The Soviet Union, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia. ************************************* 
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Overtures: Coriolan op.62; Egmont op.84; Leonora no. 3 op.72b Symphony No. 1 in C major, op. 21 Symphony No. 2 in D major, op.36 Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, op.55 Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, op. 60 Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67 Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 Symphony No. 7 in La major, op. 92 Symphony No. 8 in F major, op.93 Symphony No. 9 in D minor, op.125
Ion Piso, tenor Marius Rintzler, bass Emilia Petrescu, soprano Martha Kessler, mezzo George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra Choir of George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra Choir of Romanian Radio George Georgescu 1960-61
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В моей коллекции этот комплект появился сравнительно недавно (заказал, купил), но мне его также недавно скинули. И чтобы не заниматься лишней работой, даю тот, который мне скинули добрые люди! |
