The 2022 National Day of Romania is celebrated at the Jerusalem Theatre with an evening of all-Romanian music. Conductor: Ionuț Pascu; pan flute soloist: Dalila Cernătescu

 Dalila Cernătescu, Maestro Ionuț Pascu, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (Courtesy Romanian Cultural Institute, Tel Aviv)

 

In Israel, it is rare to hear a complete program of Romanian music but even rarer to join a large crowd of mostly Romanian speakers filling a symphony hall the size of the Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre. But this was the case on December 10th 2022 for the Extraordinary Gala of Romanian music on the occasion of Romania's National Day, an event under the auspices of the Romanian Cultural Institute, also celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations between Romania and Israel. The concert was one of the events of the Hallelujah Festival. Directing the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra was conductor/arranger and baritone Ionuț Pascu, with Romanian pan flute artist Dalila Cernătescu as soloist. Opening the event was Mr. Martin Salamon, director of the Romanian Cultural Institute (Tel Aviv), who spoke of the evening's double celebration, of Israeli (Romanian) composer/conductor László Roth, a work of whose would be performed at the concert, and of the fact that the city of Timișoara in western Romania would serve as one of the European cultural capitals in 2023. Next to speak was H.E. Radu Ioanid, Ambassador of Romania to the State of Israel. A Holocaust researcher, Dr. Ioanid spoke of Elie Wiesel and the importance of remembering the Holocaust in all its reality. Last to talk was Mr. Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, who emphasized the consistent record of Romania's relations with Israel, despite the many hard times of its own history.

 

Romania is a European country with a multicultural environment, its folk- and art music presenting a myriad of vivid music scenes. Indeed, common to many of the orchestral pieces on the program was the profusion of folk dances, full, intense orchestration and the use of regional folk modes. These elements were evident in works played of 20th century composers, such as Paul Constantinescu's "The Little Shepherd" and Constantin Silvestri's more avant-garde, piquant "Transylvanian Dances", with their varied timbres and moods, the nature associations heard in Mihail Jora's "Moldovan Views" - Part II, and some daring writing including - nostalgic moments, otherworldly moods, unique harmonic colours, clusters and wild, complex,  asymmetrical rhythm patterns - in Theodor Rogalski's  "Three Romanian Dances", a major work which became a landmark on the Romanian music scene of the time. Add to these just a sliver of ballet music - Mircea Chiriac's tempestuous, atonal and defiant "Dance of the Spells" from "Iancu Jiannu"; blink and the wicked spells have vanished! 

 

And to the works of two Romanian composers who emigrated to Israel. Dumitru Bughici a 4th generation musician of a well-known klezmer family in Iași, eastern Romania. When teaching at the National University of Music in Bucharest, he began to compose concert symphonies for strings, chamber music, works for piano, for ballet and film scores, also publishing academic works on composition and music theory. In 1985, Bughici emigrated to Israel, where he worked as a composer and music lecturer. Among his prominent works are those he wrote for the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. His "Romanian Suite" (orchestrated by Ionuț Pascu) was performed at the gala concert. It offers a string of melodies, rich in contrasting moods and peppered with solos. Dumitru Bughici's violinist son Adrian, a member of the JSO, was among the players on stage. Conductor/composer László Roth (b. 1920, Satu Mare, Romania) was deported to Auschwitz in 1944. After his release, he studied at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy (Budapest), then returning to Romania to become principal conductor at the Timișoara Opera House. Roth immigrated to Israel in 1960, conducting the Israeli Opera, the Jerusalem Radio Symphony Orchestra (today, the JSO) and several choirs, also conducting in other countries. Roth's "Mountain Echoes Pastorale" (1947), a tonal mood piece, its lush canvas alive with nature associations, makes beguiling use of instrumental timbres, offering many solos, both of woodwinds and the brass. László Roth was present at the gala event.

 

Although it existed in the Arab world prior to the Ottoman occupation of Romania, the pan flute form known as the "nai'' is considered to be a traditional instrument of the Romanian people. Unlike other folk instruments, whose evolution has undergone periods of stagnation or have even disappeared, the pan flute, in all its shapes, has continued to prove its versatility. In the late 20th century, it moved from its role in small folk music ensembles to professional music, pop music and jazz, even finding its place in symphonic- and chamber music. Devoting her career to building a new repertoire based on the musical traditions of Romania, Dalila Cernătescu, the gala concert's guest artist, has brought the music of her homeland to the modern world. With George Enescu regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history, no concert of Romanian music is complete without a work of this composer/violinist/conductor and teacher. In her own arrangement for pan flute and orchestra, Dalila Cernătescu offered the audience a new perspective on Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No.1, a work completed in 1901 when Enescu was still only 19 years old. Cernătescu 's playing often doubled the main melody, also blending into the orchestral weave in non-soloistic passages; as the mood moved into more brilliant, strident phases, the arranger/soloist also added bird calls in a kind of cadenza section prior to the piece's more shaded ending. And to Dalila Cernătescu 's pan flute improvisations: backed by a single-pitch bourdon and gentle toe-tapping rhythms on the part of the conductor and JSO strings, she launched into a profusion of moods and ideas, many traditional-type motifs, even quoting the Jewish folk song "Hava nagila" (Let us rejoice) for the benefit of the Jerusalem audience, then to take flight into a volley of virtuosic gestures in a kaleidoscope of feats showing the pan flute's potential, and beyond.

 

The concert drew to an end with Ionuț Pascu's singing of Yossi's aria from the opera "The Torch" (Robert Flavian), the orchestral score reflecting some derision at the character's supplication, and of "Joy" by prominent Romanian composer/musicologist Pascal Bentoiu. Pascu gave fervent expression to this art song, its piquant seconds, while characteristic of Romanian music, also making reference to Stravinsky’s music. It was an evening of hearty enjoyment and fine performance.