Celebrating forty years since his first performance with the Belgrade Philharmonic, Maestro Cristian Mandeal will lead the orchestra on their 35th concert together on Friday, February 23, at the Kolarac Concert Hall, starting at 8 p.m. In honor of their joined jubilee during the Philharmonic’s centennial, maestro and the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra will perform masterpieces by Wagner and Bruckner.

In the year when we are celebrating one-hundredth birthday of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, I hope that the orchestra and the people who breathe life into it will continue their long and prosperous journey. May it remain rich in musical events, and may its members remain young – always and forever. On the other hand, I hope that the politicians of this country finally clearly understand the real treasure they hold in their hands. They should discern and comprehend how precious this gem is to Serbian culture, and how important this orchestra really is in presenting the entire nation to Europe and the world. Needless to say and I cannot stress enough how crucial support for the orchestra is to the culture of the entire country. Therefore, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra should be preserved, protected, and cared for because culture is has no price; it is much more than economic and material value, Maestro Mandeal said.

To mark forty years of collaboration with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Cristian Mandeal will conduct monumental pieces of two monumental composers. The concert begins with the overture to Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser, with themes that, served as inspiration for Anton Bruckner thirty years later, for his Symphony No. 3 – Wagner-Symphony – a piece in which the composer paid homage to his great mentor. Bruckner’s Third Symphony is a perfect finale of this unique concert evening.