Tours
During its first ten years of existence, the young Cluj Philharmonic Orchestra knew a very fast evolution, developing into a sonorous organism with a strong personality, well-disciplined, with a substantial repertory, permanently extended. As a natural consequence of its international recognition was its requirement to perform concerts in the most important musical centers of the world.
The first tour abroad took place in the ex-Yugoslavia, in 1964. Successful tours followed in the ex-USSR (1966, with memorable concerts in Moscow and Sankt Petersburg). Its first western tour took place in 1968 in Italy; and it was also in Italy where one of the Orchestra’s most famous international performance took place – the Beethoven jubilee festival, performed both in Pesaro and Torino, in 1970, with the symphonies and concerts integral of the Bonn genius, under the direction of the conductors Emil Simon and Erich Bergel After 1970, the Orchestra has been regularly required to perform abroad, making numerous tours in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, USSR, the ex Eastern Germany, Western Germany, Austria, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France –that time, being the most „wanted” Romanian orchestra abroad. During the same period, a much appreciated presence on the European stages was also our Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Mircea Cristescu.
A similar evolution was registered by the Philharmonic Choir in 1972, which performed a first tour abroad as early as 1976 (Italy, conductor Florentin Mihăescu), followed by regular collaborations with the Festivals in Pesaro and Martina Franca. A notable climax was its presence in the Luzerne Festival, on the occasion of George Enescu’s centennial anniversary – 1981, where the Cluj Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, together with an exceptional casting, performed Enescu’s master-piece, Oedipe, under the baton of Mihai Brediceanu.
The 80-90’s marked a progressive reduction of the international activities, due to comunists’ cultural isolation politics during the last years of the dictatorship; after 1989, the hard work to rebuilt its international renown has been extremely successful, both by the high frequency of the artistic projects and by the remarkable significance of some of them. They returned on the stages in France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and most of all in Spain, with repeated presences in the Santander Festival as well as collaborations with great names of the international lyrics, such as José Carreras, Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna and others. A singular project brought together the Cluj symphonic ensemble with the „Deep Purple” rock band, in an ample tour in all the European capitals (2000).
The Choir put itself in evidence through collaborations with Tonhalle Zürich, Israel Philharmonic, Luxembourg RTL Orchestra, Jerusalem Philharmonic, unde the direction of first rank conductors, such as Gary Bertini, Klaus Peter Flor, Pinchas Steinberg, David Shallon and Nicholas McGegan. The Choir’s participation in the “Liturgica 2000” Festival of Jerusalem or at the inauguration of Baha’i Temple Terraces in Haifa (2001) represented world-rank events.