At the end of August and start of September, Sinfonia Varsovia will be in Romania, performing at the George Enescu International Festival. But you don’t need to travel that far to enjoy the Warsaw orchestra’s concerts! On 29 and 31 August, both performances will be streamed live at festivalenescu.ro.
On 29 August, at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, Sinfonia Varsovia and the Preludiu – Voicu Enăchescu Chamber Choir will perform Requiem for My Friend by Zbigniew Preisner – a work dedicated to the memory of film director Krzysztof Kieślowski. The soloists will be Gloria Tronel (soprano), Alexandru Costea (countertenor), Apolline Raï-Westphal (soprano), Tadeusz Szlenkier (tenor) and Alexei Botnarciuc (bass), with the orchestra conducted by Constantin Grigore.
On 31 August, at the Romanian Radio Hall in Bucharest, Sinfonia Varsovia under the baton of Marta Gardolińska will present Grażyna Bacewicz’s Overture for Symphony Orchestra, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor with Rafał Blechacz as soloist, and Wojciech Kilar’s symphonic poem Krzesany. The Polish programme will be complemented by George Enescu’s Vox Maris, Op. 31, performed together with the Romanian Radio Academic Choir.
Sinfonia Varsovia will also appear on 2 September at Thalia Hall in Sibiu. Together with Marta Gardolińska and Rafał Blechacz, the orchestra will once again perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Bacewicz’s Overture, this time joined by Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor.
The Bucharest concerts will be streamed live at festivalenescu.ro on 29 August (10:30 p.m.) and 31 August (1:00 p.m.), with recordings accessible for the following 24 hours.
Sinfonia Varsovia’s performances at the George Enescu Festival form part of the Poland–Romania Cultural Season 2024–2025, organised by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, with the support of the Polish Institute in Bucharest, the Romanian Ministry of Culture and the Romanian Cultural Institute. Further information is available on the festival website.
