Classical music fans celebrate Sergiu Celibidache with wealth of events

As the first edition of the Sergiu Celibidache festival draws to an end, Business Review takes a look at the diverse cultural events that were held in celebration of the iconic Romanian conductor’s centennial.

While you may be familiar with the latest vogue in business education – “master classes” in business management and professional development – you may be surprised to find out that this “new approach” follows on from a long tradition of master-class education in the arts, most notably in music.

Three films currently playing at Grand Cinema Digiplex as part of the Sergiu Celibidache Festival capture the inner workings of the musical master class, as well as leadership and teamwork in an orchestral context. Although I cannot laud these films as preeminent examples of documentary filmmaking, I warmly recommend them to viewers who are avid fans of the Romanian conductor and symphonic music, or those who may be interested in learning more about the dynamics of conducting and master-class education. These “music documentaries” (which I saw in reverse chronological order) offer a mosaic of rare glimpses into Celibidache’s musical aesthetics and life, without however providing a comprehensive or balanced biographical context. Originally filmed in several languages (French, German, Italian, English, Romanian), the three documentaries include Romanian subtitles and explanatory text.

The garden

Sergiu Celibidache’s Garden (142 minutes, 2009, directed by Serge Ioan Celibidache) focuses on several master classes held by the conductor in France, and interviews with him at his country estate near Paris (La Neuville-sur-Essonne). The film portrays Celibidache during the latter part of his life and illustrates his central aesthetic line – that there are many ways to say “no” (teach what is wrong), but only one way to say “yes” (teach what is right) which ultimately musicians must discover within themselves. The more unusual moments of the film occur when a group of Buddhist monks visit Celibidache at his French estate, and contrast the singing styles of identical birds in their monastery and in Celibidache’s garden. Although the film lacks an appropriate dose of editing and will challenge any aficionado’s patience at 142 minutes, this was nonetheless my favorite documentary – an intimate and poetic homage to Celibidache directed by the conductor’s son.

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Letting it evolve

Celibidache: You Don’t Do Anything, You Let It Evolve (100 minutes, 1992, directed by Jan Schmidt-Garre) portrays the middle-aged Celibidache and focuses on rehearsals of the Munich Philharmonic, interviews with the conductor and other musicians. Although a “flat” documentary (coming in at a much lower pitch than the other two), the film provides some fleeting glimpses of the controversial side of this world-renowned conductor, which are often ignored or glossed over by his fans. In one segment taken from local film archives, Celibidache meets adoring fans after his 1990 performance in Bucharest (soon after the fall of Ceausescu). He bluntly accuses the Romanian “intelligentsia” of allowing musical mediocrity among their ranks (alluding to the Romanian conductor Mihai Brediceanu), sharply dismisses their blaming of the Communist regime and states that everyone was responsible for such mediocrity (surprisingly, the fans smile and nod their heads in agreement). In another segment based on interviews with musicians in Israel, an orchestral colleague of Celibidache’s affectionately jokes about the numerous music “scandals” associated with the conductor, and concludes (without mentioning any particular episode) that Celibidache typically got his way by threatening to leave an orchestra. In segments from each documentary, we encounter Celibidache acknowledging (neither apologizing nor denying) that as a conductor he was often described as a megalomaniac, a tyrant and a dictator. Curiously absent from all three documentaries is perhaps the most documented controversy involving Abbie Conant, a trombone player with the Munich Philharmonic under Celibidache’s tenure as music director, and her ultimately successful 12-year legal battle to prove charges of gender discrimination. The story behind this controversy and its revolutionary impact on the classical music world is insightfully captured by author Malcom Gladwell in the concluding chapter, Listening with your Eyes – the Lessons of Blink (his 2005 book about the perils of “thin-slicing” in decision making).

Born to conduct

Nascut Roman Sa Dirijeze O Lume (80 minutes, 2012, co-production TVR and Fundatia Celibidache) portrays the younger (but still internationally famous) Celibidache, focusing on his Romanian concerts and interviews from the 1970s and 1990. Unlike the other two documentaries, this one provides actual concert footage and more biographical information, albeit in a distracting and hard-to-read scrolling text at the bottom of the screen.

More Celibidache

If you are left wanting more Celibidache, I also recommend two of the festival concerts at Ateneul Roman which will feature original Celibidache compositions. The June 30 opening concert will feature his 1978 composition The Pocket Garden (a 13-part suite for orchestra), to be performed by the Romanian Youth Orchestra and conductor Cristian Mandeal.

The July 7 closing concert will feature the world premier of Celibidache’s composition Haz de Necaz (a Romanian suite in eight movements), to be performed by the George Enescu Philharmonic, pianist Dan Grigore and conductor Mark Mast.

Lastly for you die-hards, two books were recently published in Romanian by Editura Spandugino and launched at the opening of the festival in May. Despre Fenomenologia Muzicala by Sergiu Celibidache (112 pages, RON 42) is based on the only public lecture the composer gave on this important topic in Munich (1985) and includes his notations to musical scores and other schematics, and is a rarity given that none of his essays or journals has been published to date. Celibidache – Intalniri Cu Un Om De Exceptie by Stephane Muller and Patrick Lang (184 pages, RON 32), which was written as a companion edition to the documentary film Sergiu Celibidache’s Garden, is based on interviews with the conductor and his son (the film’s director), as well as the authors’ testimonials.

The documentaries in the festival are playing until 6 July at Grand Cinema Digiplex/Baneasa Shopping City, reservations telephone 074 265 4321, schedule available at www.grandcinemadigiplex.ro/#program

The program for the first edition of the Sergiu Celibidache festival is at http://www.fundatia-celibidache.com/program-festival . UNESCO has dedicated 2012 the commemorative 100th anniversary of the birth date of Sergiu Celibidache (1912-1996).

Serge Ioan Celibidache is a film director and script writer, and serves as the president of Fundatia Celibidache, which launched the first Romanian edition of the festival. He was born in 1968, when his father was 56 and his mother 44.

Director Jan Schmidt-Garre produced three additional documentaries about Celibidache:  Celibidache In Rehearsal/Anton Bruckner (1993), Celibidache in St. Florian (1993), and Celibidache Rehearses Bruckner’s Ninth (2006).

Conant’s version of the controversy was published in an article written by her husband in 1994, available at http://www.osborne-conant.org/ladies.htm

Despre Fenomenologia Muzicala  and Celibidache – Intalniri Cu Un Om De Exceptie can be purchased online at www.edituraspandugino.ro

Andrea Ovanezian