George Georgescu - Later Career

Later Career

Only in 1947 would Georgescu begin to reconstruct his life and career as, with the intercession of his friend George Enescu, he was named director of the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, ironically the same ensemble with which Silvestri had made his conductorial debut. At this time Georgescu also directed the Iaşi "Moldova" Philharmonic Orchestra, and his international career began to revive with invitations to conduct in Prague and Kiev. He also again began associating with opera, advocating the revised edition of Paul Constantinescu's O noapte furtunoasa after its 1951 premiere during the Romanian Music Week. As their fortunes stabilized, the Georgescus opened their house to shelter destitute families and reached out to assist friends in distress.

Georgescu's exile from the Bucharest Philharmonic ended when Silvestri stepped down in 1953, leading to an invitation on December 11 for Georgescu to return as director. In 1955, he presided over the orchestra's name change to honor his friend George Enescu, who had recently died an exile in France; henceforth, the orchestra would be the George Enescu Philharmonic.

In many ways, upon his return to the Philharmonic, Georgescu picked up where he had left off a decade earlier. He continued his painstaking work of orchestra building; his constant efforts to attract internationally recognized soloists, which led to collaborations with the likes of David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, and Yehudi Menuhin; and his advocacy for younger Romanian talent, including Lola Bobescu, Valentin Gheorghiu, Ştefan Gheorghiu, Radu Aldulescu, Ştefan Ruha, and Ion Voicu. Voicu, whom Mengelberg had first elevated from orchestral player to soloist in dramatic circumstances, gave his first performance with the Philharmonic in 1949 under Georgescu's direction, and when he performed with the same forces in Belgrade in 1957, the cheering audience refused to leave the hall until threatened with firehoses; he would go on to become the orchestra's director for a decade beginning in 1972.

Georgescu's activities abroad, both with and without the Philharmonic, were not limited to Belgrade. Under his renewed direction, the orchestra traveled to Finland; Sweden; the Soviet Union; Berlin; Dresden; Vienna; and Athens, where it performed to great acclaim at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. It received a 25-minute ovation when it performed at the 1956 Autumn Festival in Warsaw, devoted to contemporary works.

Georgescu kept up an active schedule of guest appearances with orchestras in countries such as Italy, England, France, and Poland. In Hungary, Georgescu conducted for the first time in the presence of Zoltán Kodály; upon hearing Georgescu in Prague, Evgeny Mravinsky hailed him as a leading exponent of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. In 1960, Georgescu returned to the United States, and on December 13, 14, and 15 of that year he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. The program included Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1, Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, and Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben. The same US tour included engagements with the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras and the New York Philharmonic. Three years later, Georgescu made his British debut at the Royal Festival Hall.

Not all of Georgescu's notable activities were conductorial. Before the American tour, for instance, Georgescu had already taken part in an event that greatly affected the United States. In 1958 he served as a member of the jury of the newly-created International Tchaikovsky Competition, which, in a decision made more dramatic by the tensions of the Cold War, awarded first prize to the young American Van Cliburn. Although Cliburn's performance, featuring Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, is best remembered, having been commemorated shortly after the event in a best-selling contemporary record, the Russians also arranged a concert for their visitor Georgescu with fellow jurist Sviatoslav Richter. Also in 1958, Georgescu, as a tribute to George Enescu, organized the first George Enescu Festival, which remains a major Eastern European music festival and competition. Highlights included a performance of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins with Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh as soloists and a staging of Enescu's sole opera, Œdipe, with Silvestri conducting.

Georgescu considered himself primarily a performing musician and did not pursue an academic career. Nonetheless, from 1950 to 1953 he did accept a position teaching the conducting class at the Bucharest Conservatory, where he had himself been a student nearly half a century earlier. His greater influence doubtless was through his support of young Romanian artists and his ceaseless efforts to build Romanian musical institutions of international caliber. Over the course of his career, he presided over the Romanian premieres of more than 400 works from the international literature and world premieres of more than 100 Romanian compositions, and he opened the way for other Romanian musicians, including Mihail Jora and Jonel Perlea. The Romanian government recognized his contributions by awarding him the Romanian State Prize in 1949 and 1957 and naming him a People's Artist of the Romanian People's Republic in 1954.

His last concert brought Georgescu full circle as he led the George Enescu Philharmonic in Berlin, the site of his conducting debut, in a program featuring violinist Christian Ferras. He was already suffering the debilitating effects of a heart attack, and his end was not far off. Georgescu died in a Bucharest hospital on September 1, 1964.