On Friday, April 16^th, 2021, from 7 p.m, the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra will broadcast online the recording of a concert-event with historical value (dating back from October 9^th, 1997), conducted by the great Romanian conductor Erich Bergel (1930-1998).In a series of concerts from the beginning of the 1997-1998 season, Erich Bergel appeared for the last time on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum, only a few months before his death. Those concerts remained in the public memory as a symbolof the elite musical life of a world populated by legends that were coming to an end.The program chosen for this transmission consists of Fantasy on a theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Symphony in D minor by César Franck.

The musician's brother, Hans Bergel, wrote a book entitled A Life as a Musician: Erich Bergel, published in Germany in 2006, translated into Romanian by the Civic Academy Foundation in 2013. It is the story of a life, recomposed from personal memories, dialogues , letters and testimonies. "But Erich Bergel will remain for all the orchestras in the world and for those in the country a great conductor, one of the greatest of his time," says the author in the volume.

ONLINE SEASON

Friday, April 16^th, 2021, 7 p.m.

"George Enescu" Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

Conductor Erich Bergel

Program:

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Fantasy on a theme by Thomas Tallis

César Franck

Symphony in D minor

The recording of the concert from October 9, 1997 can be listened to on the online channels of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic Orchestra:site, on the Facebook page and on the YouTube channel.

The media partner of the event is Radio România Muzical.

The recording is broadcast, on Friday evening, on the Facebook page of Radio România Muzical .

An internationally renowned conductor, Erich Bergel was born into the family of a teacher from Râșnov, on the 1^st of June, 1930. During his primary education, he became acquainted with several instruments, all of them preferring the organ. Between 1950 - 1955, he took conducting, composition and organ courses at the "Gheorghe Dima" Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca, becoming the favorite disciple of professor and conductor Antonin Ciolan.

He holds the first conductor position at the State Philharmonic Orchestra Oradea, then at the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra of Cluj-Napoca. In 1959, he was arrested and imprisoned in the most feared communist prisons (Jilava, Periprava, Codlea) for conducting religious, "mystical" works. Released by the 1962 amnesty, he was allowed to work only as a trumpeter in the Cluj Philharmonic Orchestra. The situation changed in 1966 when he was the only conductor available to replace Fritz Mahler in the April 28^th concert.

In 1968 he received a scholarship in Berlin for a period of six months from the legendary Herbert von Karajan. Finding that Herbert von Karajan was studying The Art of Fugue by Bach, Bergel sent him the ultimate result of his scientific research -a 540-page manuscript (then printed in 1980 and 1985 in two volumes at the Max Brockhaus Music Publishing House in Bonn). and a tape recorder, on which he had printed on the organ Bach's Final Fugue, completed by him, left unfinished by Bach. The completion of Bach's Final Fugue, was called by H. von Karajan a work of "epochal importance."

Back to the country, Bergel successfully conducted in Cluj-Napoca (one of the great Romanian music centers). He made his debut at the Berlin Philharmonic in May 1970. In 1972 he settled permanently in Berlin, his international fame taking on an extraordinary scale. Since 1972 he has been a conducting professor at the Academy of Arts in West Berlin and from 1989 to 1994 he was the principal conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic.

In 1977, Ion Voicu, as the director of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic, invited him to conduct two concerts at the Romanian Athenaeum. Bergel responded to the invitation free of any charge, the sake of the victims. Being already in Vienna, On the way to Bucharest, Bergel received a telegram from ARIA in which he was told to not to come to the country because the concerts will be "postponed." What really happened: one of his colleagues - endowed with all the political qualities agreed by a communist government ( also reinstated in 1990 in a management position of an art institution in the capital) learning about Ion Voicu's invitation - handed Elena Ceausescu a memoir, in which he made Bergel "fugitive" and "traitor" - this memorandum was also signed by other colleagues from the capital and one from Cluj, after which "comrade Elena" ordered the cancellation of the invitation ", wrote Bergel in October 1997, when he conducted the" George Enescu "Philharmonic Orchestra in two consecutive concerts, on which occasion he gave us this artistic self-portrait.

These are some of the most prestigious ensembles (out of more than 180) conducted by Erich: Bergel the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks Mü Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestra dell 'Academia Santa Cecilia, Orchester de Paris, Orchester de Lyon, Orchester Nationale de Lille, Orquesta Ciutat de Barcelona, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, New Zeeland Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

Erich Bergel died in Ruhpolding, Germany, on the 3^rd of May, 1998