Timişoara’s musical life can neither be understood nor explained outside the cultural traditions of what is conventionally known as the historical Banat. At the end of the first millennium a monastery existed just close by the future citadel of Timişoara, in Cenad (Morisena). The Greek monks used Byzantine chant in their worship services, and so local music was Byzantine-inspired too. With the Church of Rome aiming to recruit the Hungarians living in the area and the monks displaced, the town of Cenad came under the jurisdiction of the first bishop of the Diocese of Cenad, Venetian Benedictine monk Gerard de Sagredo (977-1946). Establishing a school in whose curriculum music played, after the Western model of the seven liberal arts, an important role, Bishop Gerard appointed monk Walther to teach church chant (see Legenda sancti Gerhardi). The magister trained a great number of students who in their turn spread musical knowledge in other Banat monasteries and taught at the dedicated schools (see Franz Metz, Te Deum Laudamus), and so the citadel of Timişoara, officially mentioned in the 13th century, became, like its European sisters, a melting pot of musical traditions.
Banatul Philharmonic Timişoara traces its roots back to the Timişoara Philharmonic Society, whose opening concert took place on December 8, 1871 with Heinrich Weidt conducting Max Bruch’s Frithjof’s Saga and his own Der Taucher, both for choir and orchestra. Subsequent concerts would mainly feature a capella works, from miniatures to large-scale scores such as Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli, or chamber music pieces, but the vocal-orchestral genre would make a comeback with local composer Franz Wilhelm Speer’s Requiem (1877) and Die Könige in Israel (1882), Haydn’s The Creation (1880), Mendelssohn’s Elijah (1884) and Paulus (1891).
One essential figure in the musical and cultural history of Timişoara was Martin Novaček (1834-1906). A multi-instrumentalist, he played the violin, the viola and the organ, and in addition to being a teacher and a composer he served as Kapellmeister of the Saint George Catholic Cathedral, as Director of the Philharmonic Society and as piano teacher at the music school founded by the Society. Timişoara would also take pride in Novaček’s sons, too: Rudolf (1860-1929), violist, pianist, music teacher and composer who enjoyed the friendship of Ferrucio Busoni and Arthur Nikisch and whose orchestrating skills had been noticed by none other than Tchaikovsky; Ottokar (1866-1900), the most famous member of the Novaček family, a violinist with the legendary Brodsky Quartet and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, composer of a Heroic Concerto for piano and orchestra dedicated to and first performed by Busoni with Nikisch conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker; cellist Karl (1868-1929), section leader of the Budapest Opera Orchestra; and violinist Victor (1875-1914), who premiered the original version of Sibelius’ Violin concerto and played in the quartet that first performed the Finnish composer’s Voces intimae. Together with his three eldest sons, Martin Novaček founded what was the well-known ensemble Kammermusikvereinigung Familie Nováček, receiving critical acclaim in present-day Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
Even from its beginnings, Timişoara Philharmonic Society saw a great number of famous guests, such as David Popper (1873), Hubay Jenö alias Eugen Huber (1876), Pablo de Sarasate (1877), Henryk Wieniawski (1877), Joseph Joachim (1879), Johannes Brahms (1879), Leopold Auer (1881), František Ondriček (1893), Jan Kubelik (1900), Gheorghe Dima (1902), Dimitrie Popovici-Bayreuth (1902), Béla Bartók (1906), Lucia Cosma (1907), Walborg and Sigrid Svärdström (1911), without forgetting the quite picturesque and artistically exceptional concert by the Suomen Laulu Helsinki University Choir (1906).
A particularly cherished guest, George Enescu played in Timişoara no less than twelve times, between 1921 and 1943. On the occasion of his local debut, Temeswarer Zeitung wrote (May 25, 1921): “We’ve had the visit of the greatest artists these past few years, but there is no violinist like George Enescu, whose splendid performance brought us to ecstasy yesterday evening. With his masterful violin and his skilled bow, he breathed new life into works by Nardini, Kreisler, into Novaček’s Moto perpetuo and Beethoven’s Romance in F major”.
In 1931, in celebration of Enescu’s 50th birthday, the great composer was bestowed honorary citizenship by the city of Timişoara. The matching festivities included a laudatio by Mayor Emil Grădinaru, honorary member of Timişoara Philharmonic Society, the awarding of an honorary presidency by the Society of Friends of Music, speeches by Professor Iosif Velceanu, who congratulated the maestro on behalf of the Romanian 180 choirs and 60 military bands in Banat, and by representatives of German and Hungarian music societies in Timişoara. In his turn, Enescu offered the City Hall an autographed portrait.
The list of famous musicians visiting Timişoara Philharmonic Society grew in the first half of the 20th century with the names of, among others, Pablo Casals, Eugène Ysaÿe, Fritz Kreisler, Jacques Thibaud, Nathan Milstein, Gregor Piatigorsky, Annie Fischer, Arthur Rubinstein, Bronisław Huberman, Carlo Zecchi, Cella Dellavrancea, Traian Grozăvescu, Silvia Şerbescu, Constantin Bobescu.
(English version of https://filarmonicabanatul.ro/istoric/)
Musical culture in Banat County can be traced back to the church chant schools established at the end of the first millennium by the mainly Benedictine monasteries. These, together with the later private and then public music schools, both created and supported multicultural Timişoara’s interest for music.
It didn’t take long for Timişoara Philharmonic Society, founded in 1871, to attract many a famous performer: David Popper (1873), Pablo de Sarasate (1877), Henryk Wieniawski (1877), Joseph Joachim (1879), Johannes Brahms (1879), Jan Kubelik (1900), Gheorghe Dima (1902), Béla Bartók (1906) or Lucia Cosma (1907). Great George Enescu himself played there no less than twelve times, followed, in the first half of the 20th century, by Bronisław Huberman, Cella Dellavrancea, Traian Grozăvescu and Silvia Şerbescu among others.
Restructured and renamed after World War 2, the new George Enescu Philharmonic Society (1945) would once again change its denomination, becoming by decree of King Michael I, Banatul Philharmonic Timişoara (1947).
Its current headquarters was originally a movie theatre, built by the City Hall in 1929-30 and designed by Bucharest architect Duiliu Marcu and Arad-based Iosif Steiner, well-known for his wish to fashion a distinctively Neo-Romanian, national modern style. Using mostly face brick and cast stone and sharp-sloped tiled roofs, Steiner aimed for a locally-defined architecture and its dissemination in the areas that had only recently become part of present-day Romania. Such architectural language, complete with Steiner’s trademark face brick, is employed by Banatul Philharmonic Timişoara building and its simple, beautifully articulated volumes, structured in part following an axis of symmetry represented by the main entry. This latter is developed geometrically, like an abstract portal and at a distance from the façade that incorporates large rhythmical windows on the upper floor. Symmetrical to the main entry and incorporated into the main volume, two additional semi-circular bodies are punctuated by large windows. Another two symmetrical pavilions ornate the sides of the main volume. The only face brick-free surfaces are the windows openings, upper registers of the accent areas and cornices, where the design proposes a series of fine frames and repetitive arches. The building underwent repeated changes, the interior in particular.
References:
Brătuleanu, Anca. Timișoara interbelică, urbanism și arhitectură [Inter-War Timișoara. Urbanism and Architecture]. Artpress, 2016
Székely, Gabriel. Enciclopedia arhitecților din Banat, 1700 – 1990 [Encyclopaedia of Banat Architects, 1700 – 1990]. Eurostampa, 2017, Ed.
Ilieșiu, Nicolae. Timișoara. Monografie istorică [Timișoara. A Historical Monograph]. Timișoara: Planetarium, 2012