The Winners of the “George Enescu 2013 Festival” Contest on RRI

The 21st edition of the festival bearing the name of Romania’s greatest composer, unfolded between September 1st and 28th and offered 150 music, opera and ballet shows in Bucharest and other cultural centers across Romania. RRI’s contest has aroused the interest of many listeners and we have received 493 complete and correct answers. The prizes and honorable mentions consist of objects related to Enescu, to Romanian symphonic music and to general cultural topics. RRI’s contest was sponsored by Oltenia Energy Complex and supported by the “George Enescu” National Museum (including the Sections in Sinaia and Tescani), “Monitorul Oficial” (the Official Gazette), “Casa Radio” Publishers, the European Commission representative office in Romania, and the “Euro Foto Art” Association of Oradea.

Eugen Cojocariu, 04.12.2013, 13:42

You could find the answers to the contest questions in RRI’s shows, on RRI’s website and on our Facebook and Twitter profiles. The contest came to an end on September 30th. Before announcing the winners we remind you the questions:

When was George Enescu born? Correct answer: August 19th 1881. Which edition of the festival is being held in 2013? The correct answer: the 21st edition. Name three compositions by Enescu. You could have chosen from: the opera Oedipe, the 3 finished symphonies, the “Romanian Poem”, “The Romanian Rhapsody no. 1”, “The Romanian Rhapsody no. 2”, the 3 orchestral suites, numerous sonatas for piano, violin, and cello, the 3 suites for piano, several quartets for piano and strings, music for chamber orchestras, lieder and so on. Who is Ioan Hollander? Correct answer: the artistic director of the Festival. And it’s also worth mentioning that Ioan Holender was also the director of the Opera in Vienna.

Now time to announce the winners. We have 30 honorable mentions some of which will go to the following listeners of the English Section: Paritosh Chattopadhyay, Reema Goyal, Muhammad Shamim S., all three from India, Martin Rogan and Grant Skinner, both from Great Britain, Martin Gallas of the USA, Obaid Chowdhry, from Pakistan, Takao Ono of Japonia, Sunil Dhungana from Nepal, Mozahidul Islam and Robina Aktar Golapy, both from Bangladesh, and Robert C. Ackx and Maria Ackx-Blom from the Netherlands.

There are 20 3rd prizes for the listeners of RRI’s programs and also Internet users, 9 of which went to the following listeners of the English language programs: John Selesky and Tim Watson, both from the USA, Marek Pis from Poland, Shantish Nayel, Sreerekha Reddy and Venkata Rao, all 3 from India, James O’Brien of Great Britain, Catherine Agboola from Nigeria, Syed Ali Akbar from Pakistan.

We also have 30 2nd prizes and the following English Section listeners were the lucky winners of some of them: Solomon Fessahazion from Eritrea, Bob Wood and Timothy Johnson both from the USA, Christer Brunstrom of Sweden, Koichi Saito from Japan, Richard Cooke, Mark Stevens and Alastair Pamphilon all 3 from Great Britain, Ian Morrison from China, Henk Poortvliet from the Netherlands, Nasir Aziz from Pakistan, Debaki Ranjan Biswas, Najimuddin and Muralidhar M., all 3 from India, and Allan Fenix of the Philippines.

The 20 1st Prizes will go to the following listeners of the English language programs: Keith Simmonds, Brian Kendall and Howard Barnett, all 3 from Great Britain, Weldon Walles, Donald Davis, Alex Klauber and Dean Nonanno, all 4 from the USA.

We also have 3 special prizes up for grabs, which will go to the following RRI listeners and Internet users: Thein Soe from Malaysia, Jayanta Chakrabarty from India, and Bezazel Ferhat, from Algeria who wrote to the French Section.

Here is what Thein Soe wrote: “There is a famous anecdote about Enesco. One day in the 1920s, Enesco was touting one of his students to his friend the famous pianist Alfred Cortot. Enesco begged Cortot to come to the students recital to hear this student. Enesco (who was also an excellent pianist) said he would be accompanying. When the time for the recital came, Cortot indeed did attend, but the page turner didnt show up, so Enesco asked Cortot if he would turn pages. The person playing the piano should have been playing the violin. The person turning the pages should have been playing the piano. One presumes the person playing the violin could have turned pages’. I must confess that despite over 55 years of playing music and being a symphonic performer, I cannot name any other Romanian composer other than Enescu. Bartok wrote some music which was based of Romanian themes (notably the six Romanian Dances, often heard in its violin transcription), but he, of course was Hungarian. There are quite a number of Romanian performers, most famously Angela Gheorghiu nowadays, but also Pianist Radu Lupu, violinist Ion Voicu, but Enescu is the most famous Romanian composer”.

Jayanta Chakrabarty from India wrote the following, we quote: “The main motivating factor that prompted me to take part in this special contest is to know about the specific reasons as to why George Enescu is considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century and what is so special about this greatly talented Romanian. I am glad to state that this Contest has enabled me to unearth hitherto unknown facts about the greatness of this uniquely talented pioneer in Romanian classical musical history who effectively blended the traditional elements of Romanian music to the noble influences of international music. This noble Romanian soul contributed immensely to the harmony and well being of his countrymen by spreading his music throughout Europe. He financially supported young struggling musicians, made donations for musicians scholarships and instituted national music awards for deserving candidates. Enescu was also a benevolent and exceptional teacher who wanted to share his musical experience with fellow musicians. Some of his contemporary famed students are Yehudi Mehuhin, Dinu Lipatti, Arthur Grumiaux, Christian Ferras and Ida Haendel, among others.”

The prizes will be sent by mail. Please confirm reception of the prize and its content by mail, fax or e-mail. Thank you once again for participating in RRI’s contest devoted to the “George Enescu 2013” Festival and we kindly invite you to participate in other contests RRI will organize in the future.