The theatre of the Cantacuzino Palace hosted on February 17th 2010 a Doru Popovici Medallion on his 60th artistic activity anniversary and 78th birth anniversary. In the beginning, musicologist Viorel Cosma presented the audience Doru Popovici's activity in critic and music. The first musical moment was performed by soprano Irina Ionescu and pianist Viorela Ciucur. We listened to lieder on lyrics by George Topârceanu and George Bacovia very well matched with Irina Ionescu’s artistic delicacy as well as Two Byzantine Hymns on an ancient liturgical text. The latter surprised through their unusual mix between the soprano sound and the liturgical lyrics.

Music critic and musicologist Petre Codreanu then presented the personality of composer Doru Popovici focusing on the poetry, the melody-oriented technique and the mix between the contemporary and the traditional language.

At the end of the performance, soprano Mirela Zafiri and pianist Ana Maria Ciornei were on stage to perform several early lieder of the composer (lyrics by Lucian Blaga), written during his dodecaphonic period (lyrics by Tudor Arghezi) or in his last synthesis-oriented composing years (lyrics by Alexander Pushkin and Doru Popovici). The entire performance was deeply dramatic, matching the composer’s works and ended with the lieder on lyrics by Mihai Eminescu, in an attempt to bring a bit of hope and optimism. The enthusiastic and highly gestical performance of Mirela Zafiri made me take, for a few moments, the lied recital for opera.

We end this short review with a conclusion of composer Doru Popovici: ‘I almost could not recognize my own music anymore, as the performances recreated it and made it even more beautiful.’