Ro personalities in arts

LLP Comenius Multilateral Partnership 2013-2015

Material prepared by:Mihaela Ţurcănaşu (Teacher of

History)Daniela Livadaru (Teacher of

Religion)

Students:Sorana Tucaliuc – 12th Grade Ana Toporeţ – 11th GradeProject Meeting in Palermo, Italy

- the 16th – the 21st of October 2014 -

one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century;

he was a violinist, pianist, conductor, and teacher as well;

Born on the 19th of August, 1881, in Liveni, Romania, he was considered a wonder child; as early as the age of five, he dreamed to be a composer;

He started his musical career very early, in 1886, at the advise of Eduard Caudella, composer and professor at the Conservatoire in Iasi;

His first attempts as composer

Between 1888 and 1894, George Enescu was studying at the Vienna Conservatoire (the youngest student ever) with renowned professors of the time.

In 1891, the ten-year-old Enescu gave a private concert at the Court of Vienna, in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph.

He continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire (1895 – 1899) under the guidance of remarkable professors of violin, composition, harmony, and counterpoint.

A virtuoso violin player

The four “school symphonies” date back from the period he spent studying in Paris, among which The Romanian Poem Op. 1 (1898) is the most famous one and brought the young composer the acknowledgement.

George Enescu participated in violin competitions at the Conservatoire in Paris, winning the second prize (1898) and the first prize (1899); for this, he was offered a precious Bernardel violin with his name engraved on it.

He was “the only one [student] who truly had ideas and spirit.“

(André Gedalge, harmony teacher)

On the 6th of February 1898, at the age of only 16, George Enescu presented in Paris his first mature work, The Romanian Poem, played by the Colonne Orchestra (at the time, one of the most prestigious in the world) and conducted by Édouard Colonne.

The Romanian folk music was a source of inspiration for George Enescu, such as in The Romanian Rhapsodies (1901-1902) and in Sonata for Violin and Piano.

As a violin teacher, he mentored Yehudi Menuhin, who continued to cite Enescu as a major influence all his life, and other legendary players.

After the war, he resumed his tours as a violinist and a much-admired conductor in USA, Switzerland, France, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Canada etc.

An esteemed musicologist and a tireless organizer, he took on spectacular tasks such as forming a Philharmonic Orchestra, the Romanian National Opera and a Composers' Society in Romania.

George Enescu in 1930

The international acknowledgement and fame brought George Enescu numerous occasions to give music interpretation courses, stylistic, analysis and musical forms classes worldwide.

Due to the Communist regime, George Enescu spent his last years in France.

On his death in 1955, George Enescu was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Grave of George Enescu

The memory of the great Romanian musician is revived by the biannual International Festival that bears his name, as well as by symposiums taking place in Romania and abroad and, not in the least, by the specialized writings, the exhibitions, and the concerts organized by “George Enescu” National Museum in Bucharest.

Romania's greatest musical force and a significant mind of the 20th Century, George Enescu succeeded in incorporating Romanian spirituality into worldwide culture.

He was "the most extraordinary human being, the greatest musician and the most formative influence.”

Yehudi Menuhin

one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th Century;

a complex personality, he was a painter and photographer as well;

In Paris, 1905

Born on the 19th of February, 1876, in Hobiţa, Romania, he displayed since childhood an aptitude for carving wooden tools.

His parents Nicolae and Maria Brâncuși were poor peasants who earned a meager living through back-breaking labour; from the age of seven, Constantin herded the family's flock of sheep.

Formal studies took him first to Bucharest , then to Munich, and to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1905 to 1907.

He worked for two years in the workshop of Antonin Mercié of the École des Beaux-Arts, and was invited to enter the workshop of Auguste Rodin;

After leaving Rodin's workshop, Brâncuși began developing the revolutionary style for which he is known. His first commissioned work, "The Prayer", was part of a gravestone memorial. It depicts a young woman crossing herself as she kneels, and marks the first step toward abstracted, non-literal representation; it shows his drive to depict "not the outer form but the idea, the essence of things“.

Mademoiselle Pogany II, 1925 polished bronze

Most works by Constantin Brâncuşi are currently exhibited in museums and top collections all over the world.

Madame L.R.

‘Head’, ‘Mademoiselle Pogany II’, ‘The Newborn’, ‘Sleeping Muse II’, and the ‘Fish’ are the five bronze masterpieces on display which testify to Brâncuşi’s unsurpassed sculptural frugality and witness how much he was inspired by the Romanian folk art and African sculpture.

As for his relevance in today’s art world, suffice it to say that on the 23rd of February 2009, his rare wooden ‘Madame L.R. ’ sculpture sold for $37.6 million at the Yves Saint Laurent/Pierre Bergé sale at Christie's in Paris, hitting number eight in the list of the ten highest prices ever paid for a sculpture as of November 2013.

Sleeping Muse

Endless Column

In 1938, he finished the World War I monument in Târgu-Jiu where he had spent much of his childhood. "Table of Silence", "The Gate of the Kiss", and "Endless Column" commemorate the courage and sacrifice of Romanian civilians who in 1916 fought off a German invasion. The restoration of this ensemble was spearheaded by the World Monuments Fund and was completed in 2004.

The Gate of the Kiss

Fish, 1926

The Kiss

“Simplicity is complexity resolved”

“We do not see real life except by it’s reflection” wrote Brâncuşi in 1919.

Brâncuși died on the 16th of March, 1957, aged 81. He was buried in the Cemetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

He looked for new means of expression and followed the trend of en plein air painting;

He identified and brought to light the profound characteristic values of the Romanian spirituality;

He was born in Pitaru, Dâmboviţa County, Wallachia.

In 1843 the family moved to Bucharest.

At a young age (between 1846 and 1850), he became an apprentice at the workshop of the painter Anton Chladek and created icons for the church of Băicoi and the monastery of Căldăruşani.

In 1856-1857 he painted the new church of Zamfira Monastery (Prahova County), then, until 1861, the church of Agapia Monastery.

Attracted by the artistic outlooks of the Barbizon School, he would settle down in this place, achieving his pictorial education by assimilating the experience of such artists as Jean-François Millet, Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet.

Maidens at the entrance

In the autumn of 1861, young Grigorescu left for Paris, where he was admitted to the School of Fine Arts, attending Sébastien Cornu's workshop (1804-1870), where he was a fellow student of Auguste Renoir (1841-1919).

He participated in the Universal Exhibition of Paris (1867) with seven paintings, and exhibited the Young Gypsy Girl painting at the 1868 at Paris Salon.

Grigorescu returned to Romania several times and, starting with 1870, he participated in the Living Artists' Exhibitions and in those organized by the Society of the Fine Arts' Friends.

In 1873-1874, he took study trips to Italy (Rome, Naples, and Pompei), Greece and Vienna.

Young Gypsy Girl

The Fisherwoman in Granville

The same originality is evident in his series of Carts Pulled by Oxen, in the landscapes painted in the country or during his journeys abroad (At Posada, Earthen House in the Forest, Flower-strewn Path, The Fisherwoman in Granville, City Crossroad at Vitré).

The Attack on Smârdan

Aspects of a completely original style and vision claim recognition in his portraits, in compositions inspired by his experience of participating in the War of Independence (The Attack on Smârdan, Soldier in the Cavalry Troops on Horseback).

Nicolae Grigorescu caused a fundamental change in the evolution of painting and artistic taste in Romania. A strong and complex temperament, lyrical through his nature, endowed with a sensitivity that enabled him to adapt the poetic idealization inspired by the Barbizon School to the Romanian environment and landscape, he remains the first Romanian painter of European circulation.

Sales prices for Grigorescu’s paintings increased from September 2010, when the famous “Ox cart“ was amounted to EUR 155,000 and then last year’s December when the “Shepherdess” was sold to EUR 175,000 at the Artmark auctions.

“Nicolae Grigorescu is Romanian with all his heart and throughout his work. (…) His friendship with French artists failed to tear him away from Romanian meditation, from the memory of doinas, from the image of the vast Danube Plain, silvered with dust, from this sweet country of hillocks, with vineyards and shingle-covered little houses.”

Henri FOCILLON

Ox cart Shepherdess

One of the best sopranos of the world;

She is following the tradition of great Romanian opera singers (Hariclea Darclée , Mariana Nicolescu, Viorica Cortez etc.)

Angela Gheorghiu was born on the 7th of September, 1965 in Adjud, Romania.

She attended the Music School in Bucharest and at the age of 14 enrolled at the Bucharest Music Academy, where she studied with the famous music teacher Mia Barbu.

At Peleş Castle, Romania, on

the 8th of January 2013

The same year, she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as Mimi in La Bohème and at the Vienna State Opera, as Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore.

Two years later, she imposed herself as one of the greatest sopranos when she performed the Violleta role in La Traviata, at the Royal Opera House.

In 1992, she made her international debut at the Royal Opera House in London, as Zerlina in Don Giovanni.

Since then, she gave concerts in opera houses and concert halls around the world;

Her opera repertoire includes roles such as Mimi in La Bohème, Violetta in La Traviata, Adina in L’Elisir d’amore, Liù in Turandot, Micaela in Carmen, Juliette in Roméo and Juliette, Magda in La Rondine, Suzel in L’Amico Fritz, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Manon in Manon and Charlotte in Werther.

Her discography primarily recorded with EMI Classics and Decca includes numerous albums.

Angela Gheorghiu as Floria Tosca at San Francisco Opera, November 2012

Divorced from her first husband, from whom she retained her surname, Gheorghiu married tenor Roberto Alagna in 1996.

The couple have sung together often on stage and on studio recordings. In October 2009, Alagna said in an interview in Le Figaro that he and Gheorghiu had separated.

However, in January 2013, she announced that they had agreed to divorce.

Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna

Ms. Gheorghiu was honoured with “La Medaille Vermeille de la Ville de Paris” and she was appointed an “Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres” and “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres” by the French Ministry of Culture and by her native country Romania.

In December 2010 she was awarded the honorific title of “Doctor Honoris Causa” by the University of Arts in Iasi (Romania) and the “Star of Romania”, the highest decoration given by the by the President of Romania.

In October 2012 she was conferred the “Nihil Sine Deo” royal decoration from His Majesty King Michael I for promoting Romanian cultural values abroad.

All these performances and recitals have confirmed Ms. Gheorghiu’s status as one of the most beloved stars of opera.