On the 20th and the 21st of November director Cristian Mandeal conducted the Orchestra of Montpellier in two concerts and, together with the Basque National Orchestra, he will perform another five concerts between November, 30 and December 4, 2009.


Under what circumstances did your collaboration with the Orchestra of Montpellier take place?

I was invited to conduct two concerts in this year's season - an invitation I kept receiving for over a year now, a year and a half maybe -, concerts which took place at Montpellier and Besançon. The programme included classical works by Beethoven - Symphony No. 6 "The Pastoral" - and Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 1 performed by Nicolas Angelich, one of today's best-known French pianists. He is about 40 years old and is indeed a very skilled piano player.


What do you intend to perform in the concert series alongside the Basque National Orchestra?

After one week of rehearsals we will perform five concerts: two in Saint Sebastian, one in Bilbao, another one in Vitoria, the capital city of the Basque Country, and one concert in Pamplona, the capital city of Navarre. Each of these cities have excellent concert halls. The programme includes English and French music of the first half of the 20th century. The first musical piece is called Chant du joie and is composed by Arthur Honneger; the second is the rarely-performed Piano Concerto of Poulenc's, a work to be played by English pianist Ian Fountain. The second part of the performance includes Symphony No. 2, "London", composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Author: Andra Ivanescu
Translated by: Georgiana Mîndru and Valentina Tache
MA Students, MTTLC, Bucharest University