Homage to Georg Enescu

Every two years, Bucharest holds its Georg Enescu Festival. Florian Baiculescu pays homage to the Romanian composer who after the end of World War II lived in France. "At one of the concerts Master Enescu gave before the war in Bucharest a piece of music by Ernest Bloch - an interpretation of a vocal piece for the violin - was to be played along with pieces by Bach, Brahms and Yssaye. This was a time when nationalist students had become extremely active and aggressive. Enescu was therefore told it would be safer and wiser not to play a piece by the 'Jew' Bloch. Enescu would never have complied with such a request. At the concert he announced that the Block piece would not be performed. The audience applauded like mad, chanting 'long live the master!'. But once it had quietened down Enescu added: 'I'll play Maurice Ravel's 'Kaddish' instead. The audience froze, but no one dared to complain."

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