Enescu Festival: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra to play Wagenaar, Mozart, Dvorak at Romanian Athenaeum

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of conductor Lahav Shani, will perform on Thursday evening at the Romanian Athenaeum, as part of the George Enescu International Music Festival.

The soloist of the evening will be violinist Valentin Serban.

The playbill includes Overture for orchestra Op. 23, Cyrano de Bergerac by Johan Wagenaar; Violin Concerto no. 5 in A major K. 219 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Symphony no. 9 in E minor Op. 95, From the New World by Antonin Dvorak.

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Founded in 1918, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra has earned an important place among the most prestigious orchestras in the Europe. After the first pioneering years, the Rotterdam Philharmonic developed into one of the foremost orchestras of the Netherlands under Eduard Flipse, principal conductor from 1930. In the 1970s, under Jean Fournet and Edo de Waart, the orchestra gained international recognition. Valery Gergiev's appointment heralded a new period of bloom, which continued with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and with Lahav Shani, principal conductor from 2018.

Since the groundbreaking Mahler recordings with Eduard Flipse in the 1950s, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra has made a large number of critically lauded recordings.

At present the orchestra has contracts with Deutsche Grammophon and BIS Records; in recent years it also recorded for EMI and Virgin Classics. For the rereleasing of historical recordings the orchestra formed its own label Rotterdam Philharmonic Vintage Recordings.

During the outbreak of the coronavirus, the orchestra reached its audience with digital content. Most notable was a stay-at-home rendition of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which was viewed 3 million times and became world news.

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Lahav Shani is chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He assumed his position in September 2018, succeeding Yannick Nezet-Seguin and becoming the youngest chief conductor in the orchestra's history.

In the 2020/21 season, Lahav Shani succeeded Zubin Mehta as Music Director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 2017/18 season, Lahav Shani became Principal Guest Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, following a number of appearances with the orchestra since his debut in May 2015, including a major European tour in January 2016.

He also works regularly with the Berlin Staatskapelle, both at the Berlin Staatsoper and also for symphonic concerts.

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After winning the Grand Prize at the 2020/21 George Enescu International Competition, Valentin Serban was invited to perform as soloist at the 2021 Enescu Festival with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, and opened the 2022 edition of the Enescu Competition performing Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the winners of the other two sections.

Since the fall of 2024 he has been teaching violin as a doctoral student at the National Academy of Music Gheorghe Dima in Cluj-Napoca.

For five years, Valentin Serban was a member of the prestigious ensemble Les Dissonances, under the direction of violinist David Grimal. He was violinist and concertmaster of the Romanian Youth Orchestra, and between April 2023 and December 2024 he held the position of concertmaster of the George Enescu Philharmonic in Bucharest. He also held masterclasses in Iasi, Cluj (2024) and Brasov (2025).

Among the highlights of 2025 are the concert at the George Enescu International Festival, where he will perform with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductor Lahav Shani at the Romanian Athenaeum, and a concert at the Sarajevo Philharmonic.

He has collaborated with renowned artists and performed on major stages such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Konzerthaus Berlin, Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerp, the Romanian Athenaeum, Opera de Dijon and Le Volcan in Le Havre.

He has made significant recordings, including the complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano by Johannes Brahms with pianist Liliana Iacobescu (Electrecord), Trio Op. 15 by Bedrich Smetana together with Claudio Bohorquez and Julia Hamos (Krzyzowa-Music), as well as the album Violin in Love (Casa Radio Publishing House), part of the series Heirs of Musical Romania, realized together with pianist Daria Tudor, with works by Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.