Prestigious line-up for Enescu music festival 20th edition

Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim, pianist Boris Berezovski and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will perform at the 20th Bucharest Enescu music festival in September, organisers said.

"This festival of art and culture will be held in difficult times", its director, Ioan Holender, told reporters referring to the economic crisis hitting many countries including Romania.

"But in difficult times, people appreciate even more profoundly this 'good' we did not lose: art," the former director of the Vienna State Opera added.

He said the number of international musicians and orchestras lining up for the Bucharest festival did not "have any equivalent" in the world.

For its 20th edition, to be held between September 1 and September 25, the Enescu festival will present more than 280 art works.

The Vienna, French and Israeli Philharmonic orchestras, the London Symphonic Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin are among the "great orchestras of the world" who will perform in the Romanian capital. he said.

Barenboim, Antonio Pappano, the musical director of the Royal Opera, and the French pianists sisters Katia and Marielle Labeque will also be among the performers.

The Enescu international music festival was set up in 1958 to pay tribute to the famous Romanian composer George Enescu (1881-1955). It was banned by Romania's then Communist regime in 1971 but came back to life after the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.

It is held every two years in Bucharest.