Experiencing Bucharest: A Piano Concert to Remember
The six degrees of separation posit that that each one of us is connected to each other by six people or less. And surely that was the case when I found myself attending a piano concert in Bucharest Romania and learned the concert pianist, Aimo Pagin, was a star pupil of the late Leon Fleisher.
I live in Annapolis, Maryland and Leon Fleisher was a world-renowned classical pianist, conductor and pedagogue. He’d pivoted from pianist to conductor when coping with a neurological condition that limited the use of his left hand.
The connection-Baltimore is my hometown. Leon Fleisher taught at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. I moved to Annapolis, Maryland in 1984 and Fleisher was an early director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra
In the later years of his life, he was a featured guest at the ASO and I was privileged to hear him in concert. He died in 2020. His legacy lives on in his students.
Our tour was spending a few nights at the Athénée Palace, strategically located near the Romanian Atheneum, a domed ornate landmark. possessing a concert hall with marvelous acoustics.
“Go inside,” our guide recommended, “When you have some free time and look at the ceiling.”
Designed by French architect Albert Galleron, the neo classical style building was opened to the public in 1888. Highpoints to admire include a fresco by Costin Petrescu that decorates the inside of the circular wall of the concert hall located on the second level. Depicting Romanian history, commencing with the Roman conquest and concluding with the founding of Greater Romania in 1918, it is painted using the al fresco technique.
We had a free evening, so we knocked on the side door, hoping to gain admittance, but the hall was closed. “We’re getting ready for a concert,” the guard explained.
“What time is the concert?” we asked, “Can we buy tickets?’
The 800 seats in the concert hall provide perfect visibility to the stage from every seat along with excellent acoustics, making the hall one of the most successful constructions of its kind in the world.
The pieces to be performed, as listed on the poster featured works by: Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, and Prokofiev. My husband Peter and I had one hour to clean up and get ready.
While neither of us understood a word of Romanian, we listened to the introduction and stood for the moment of silence before listening to an exquisite performance by the French classical pianist Aimo Pagin, who according to his website now resides in Austria. Represented by Bösendorfer, he performs all over the world.
The next morning at breakfast, one of my tour friends recognized him seated at a table across the room and we were able to personally convey how much we enjoyed his performance. To learn more about Aimo and his recordings, as well as upcoming performances visit his website here.
You never know when you will get an opportunity to partake in an unexpected experience, in this instance, an exquisite performance of: Momento Musicale, op 16 by Serghei Rachmaninoff, Vais Trist by Jean Sibelius, and Sonata number 7 in C major opus 83 by Serghei Prokofiev.
But remember to always seize the moment. Are lives truly are connected.
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Originally published at http://nadjamaril.com on May 6, 2025.
