Don’t miss: RadiRo Festival Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Towards the end of the month, from September 20-27, Bucharest will host the second edition of RadiRo – Radio Orchestras International Festival. The event will bring to the capital five radio orchestras, along with internationally renowned soloists and conductors. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France and the Romanian Radio National Orchestra will play under the baton of world acclaimed conductors Joshua Weilerstein, Ondrej Lenárd, Stéphane Denève, Case Scaglione, Vassily Sinaisky, Tiberiu Soare and Cristian Mandeal. Pianists Jonathan Biss, Jan Simon and Horia Mihail violinists Alexandru Tomescu, Nikolaj Znaider and Vadim Gluzman, soprano Katarina Jovanovic and mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose are among the virtuosos due to perform. 

On September 20, classics music lovers will have the opportunity to see and hear Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (in picture) under the wand of Joshua Weilerstein.

According to the official page of the festival, conductor Joshua Weilerstein made his debut in two subscription concerts with the New York Philharmonic in October 2013 where he is in his final season as one of the Orchestra’s two Assistant Conductors. Weilerstein attracted international attention when he won both the First Prize and the Audience Prize of the 2009 Malko Competition for Young Conductors. He has since conducted and has been re-engaged by many of the major Scandinavian orchestras and has developed close relationships with several, including the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. He also made very successful debuts with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the Teatro San Carlo and the BBC SO. He has been re-invited by the BBC SO twice including for a concert in the Barbican in 2015.

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle). The Radio Orchestra of ten players founded in 1927 grew to symphony orchestra strength in the 1960s. The latest contemporary music is a major item in the repertoire of the FRSO, which each year premieres a number of Yle commissions. Another of the orchestra’s tasks is to record all Finnish orchestral music for the Yle archive.The 2014/2015 season will feature such works as colourful orchestral tone poems by Richard Strauss, symphonies by Shostakovich and Haydn’s mighty Creation. As its conductors, the Orchestra has invited such celebrated international maestros as Lorin Maazel, Herbert Blomstedt and Kent Nagano. Its collaboration with its Honorary Chief Conductors Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo will continue, and Esa-Pekka Salonen will be coming along to conduct a performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird. Also among the guests will be such shining vocal stars as Karita Mattila, Nina Stemme, Sandrine Piau, Christian Gerhaher, Michael Petrenko and Soile Isokoski. Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin and Tabea Zimmermann, viola will both be playing some Bartók, and pianist Olli Mustonen will join the FRSO in launching a series of Prokofiev piano concertos.

Full program:

Read more about

East European Coffee Culture Festival: brewing excitement this weekend

read more

SATURDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2014, from 19.00

FINNISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Conductor: JOSHUA WEILERSTEIN

Soloist: JONATHAN BISS – piano

Programme:

E. Grieg: Peer Gynt – Suite No. 1, Op. 46

L. van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.  4 in G major, Op. 58

J. Sibelius: Spring Song, Op. 16

R. Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche, Op. 28

Between September 20 – 27, Bucharest will be endowed once again with the enthralling fervour and artistic vigour of a vivid European capital at the 2nd edition of RadiRo – Radio Orchestras International Festival. For an entire week, at the end of September, the concert hall and the ‘sound podium’ will join together at the RadiRo Festival, a unique musical event in Europe, which will bring in Bucharest five radio orchestras, along with internationally renowned soloists and conductors.

Oana Vasiliu