A few days ago I was invited by a dear friend to attend a classical concert. The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at the 25th George Enescu Festival in Bucharest.

I love music, but I am not attending classical concerts very often. This time it was the excellent company and Enescu’s Romanian Rapsody that took me out of the house.

They started with Enescu – Isis and Stravinsky. Sounded to me very intellectual, avantardistic, a bit distant and cold. So I started being really interested in other details, the discipline of every musician. They are all highly trained and they can contain themselves in playing one note 50 times, just to give the rhythm. I was wondering if the trombonist counts the notes on his sheet of paper or if he knows by heart how often he has to play this one note (played to perfection) or if he waits for a sign from the conductor to stop.

What an incredible display of community! Everyone knows his/her role, his/her implication and fills his/her place whenever needed and asked. What an incredible display of leadership! The conductor regards every member of the community and giving him/her the lead when necessary.

All members of that community are taken into account and all have their place and when it is their time to step in, they perform at their highest level.

Then in an act of real importance two people carried the conductors desk from the stage.

Silence and a sense of expectance and anticipation was about in the concert hall.

I am not Romanian, even if my name is, and if I say that the true National Anthem of Romania for me is the Romanian Rhapsody by George Enescu, I say this because I feel it and not because of any national pride. I love Romania and my life here and this piece of music, this incredible piece of art and love, is touching me deeply. I feel this touch whenever I enter a plane of a romanian airline that plays it during boarding. It describes the wonders of nature in this country and the pleasure of its people to celebrate, dance and be happy. All still valid today!

And in this silent time of anticipation, Sir Simon Rattle came back in and a storm broke loose! A storm of emotions, of tenderness, of love and dance, waves of beauty and sweetness. Every one of the musicians, while still knowing their place, while still disciplined, while following every move, every muscle of their conductor, dived into this wave of emotions and at the end these english musicians hugged each other because the waves they were sending out, came back to them and overwhelming even them.

I was helpless in this sea of emotions, while listening with all my body, I felt a longing, a yearning and a desire to belong – to a divine community!

Thanks to Covid measures, my tears were caught by the mask but the make-up was ruined and I got back to Mother Earth with a glass of prosecco!