On April 12th, 2024, a renowned international record label, Deutsche Grammophon, releases an album comprising three discs, featuring the first three symphonies and the two Romanian rhapsodies by George Enescu, recorded by the National Orchestra of France, conducted by its musical director, Cristian Măcelaru. It is the first time Enescu's symphonies appear in the catalog of the Universal Music group, of which Deutsche Grammophon is a part.

These are the recordings made in the Radio France studios, in 2022 and 2023, based on the original scores existing at the Enescu Museum in Bucharest, consulted by Cristian Măcelaru, who made dozens of corrections to the currently available printed scores - with the hope that these corrected scores will be able to see the light of print after the moment when protection over these works ceases, meaning after January 1st, 2026.

I listened with emotion, and often with tears in my eyes, to the versions made by Cristian Măcelaru and the National Orchestra of France for George Enescu's main symphonic works. Because these interpretative versions practically rewrite the perception of these works - the rhapsodies, the most well-known, the symphonies, too little known internationally. Cristian Măcelaru uses the extraordinary sound and the expertise of this orchestra specialized in French music for the reading of the three symphonies, in which the sonic planes are very well individualized, the carefully crafted details, and the whole constructed in a high philosophical sense.

Enescu wasn't just a bearer of Romanian, Viennese, and French musical traditions - based on his origin and studies - but a universal figure who left us a musical legacy that, nearly 70 years after his passing, we are still decrypting. Too few orchestras and conductors at the international level have had the time and patience to go through the dense scores, especially those of the second and third symphonies, monumental works not only in their construction but especially in their message.

But now, a major orchestra, representing the country that adopted Enescu and where he rests in eternal sleep, alongside a Romanian conductor who knows exactly, on a personal level, what Enescu's life meant, a life lived across the globe, proposes absolutely memorable versions that are making history in Romanian culture.

Up to now, the interpretive model that most people have referred to, at least for George Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, is that of Sergiu Celibidache. Something of Celibidache's ideas, his exuberance, and perhaps his humor, remains in the interpretation proposed by the National Orchestra of France and Cristian Măcelaru; but not only that. The orchestra and conductor transcend the national context by anchoring themselves in the universality of music, discovering new ideas and sonic planes to highlight. These rhapsodies become - this is how I felt listening to them - a symbol for the ideal Romania that we dream of for ourselves and our children.

I invite you to listen to this absolutely stirring album in three episodes: Symphony No. 2, on April 15th, at 7:00 PM, Symphony No. 3, on April 22nd, at 7:00PM, and Symphony No. 1 and the two Romanian rhapsodies, on Easter Day, May 5th, at 1:00 PM.