George Enescu and the Athenaeum

About George Enescu and the Athenaeum

By the ULTIMATE Bucharest Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

George Enescu, violinist, pianist, conductor and composer, is Romania’s greatest musician, and the festival that bears his name has made Bucharest one of Europe’s great classical music cities.

Enescu

Born in 1881 in Moldavia, Enescu was a child prodigy who studied in Vienna and Paris and became one of the great musicians of his time; his Romanian Rhapsodies and his opera Œdipe are his best-known works. He taught the young Yehudi Menuhin.

The Athenaeum

The Romanian Athenaeum, opened in 1888, was partly paid for by a public subscription, “Give a leu for the Athenaeum”. Its circular concert hall is wrapped in a great fresco of Romanian history, and it is home to the George Enescu Philharmonic.

“Give a leu for the Athenaeum” paid for Bucharest’s concert hall.

The festival

The George Enescu Festival, founded in 1958 and now held every two years in late summer, brings the world’s great orchestras and soloists to Bucharest for weeks of concerts.

Our advice: book a concert at the Athenaeum, and plan around the Enescu Festival if you can. The Enescu Museum in the Cantacuzino Palace on Calea Victoriei is worth a visit.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with George Enescu and the Athenaeum before you go.