British Romanian pianist Florian Mitrea was “born in Bucharest, but has been based in the UK since 2008”. He’s a phenomenal musician! The award-winning soloist received a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He’s won prizes at international piano competitions worldwide, including China, UK, US, France, Scotland, Japan, and Germany,
Florian studied with Russian-Italian pianist Boris Petrushansky in Italy, and was the UK’s Making Music selected artist for 2019-20. In 2018, he was appointed Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he’s an alumni and professor.
The Hoinar Festival
Florian “curates his own start-up music festival in Bucharest, The Hoinar Festival, a project centered on education and helping young pianists and other performing artist early in their development”. Hoinar means “wanderer”. He’s an active chamber music and international festival participant, and collaborates with renowned violinists, string quartets, and woodwind quintets.
Performances by Florian have been “broadcast on BBC as well as Romanian, Swiss, French, and German radio and television”. He’s produced several CDs.
Program
Both the program and narrative last night were in Romanian, so I was at a loss during Mitrea’s discourse with the audience. He often brought laughter and applause to everyone and is clearly well respected. In keeping with principles of The Hoinar Festival, after the first three pieces, Florian introduced a surprise young pianist (at least to me), Nil Mladin, who performed solo compositions.
Young Mladin is quite talented and clearly was known by the Romanian audience. Then, the two brilliant pianists performed several duos on the same piano. It was fantastic! Mitrea and Mladin ended with a rousing duo of Franz Liszt’s popular, famous Hungarian Rhapsody, delighting the happy audience!
These were the pieces performed (excluding solos by Nil Mladin):
- Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata în do major, op. 2, nr. 3
- Franz Liszt Aprés une lecture du Dante: Fantasia Quasi-Sonata (din Ani de pelerinaj, caietul II)
- Serghei Prokofiev – Sonata nr. 7
- Serghei Rahmaninov – Barcarolă și Scherzo pentru pian la 4 mâini, op. 11
- Franz Liszt Rapsodia ungară nr. 2 (aranjament al compozitorului pentru pian la 4 mâini)
Last night’s concert was another memorable performance at the Romanian Athenaeum – “the heart of Romania’s culture“!