Constantin Dimitrescu was a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n classic

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 composer and music teacher, one of the most prominent representatives of the late Romantic

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

 period.

Background

Born in Blejoi

Blejoi

Blejoi is a commune in Prahova County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Blejoi, Ploieştiori and Ţânţăreni.-Natives:* Geo Bogza* Radu Tudoran...

, Prahova County

Prahova County

Prahova is a county of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploieşti.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 829,945 and the population density was 176/km². It is Romania's most populated county, having a population density double than the country's mean...

, he was taken to Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

 at an early age, once his musical talent was recognized. There he studied cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 and composition with some of Romania's best-known music teachers. Funds were subsequently made available for him to continue his education in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and then later in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 where he studied with, among others, the famous cello virtuoso

Virtuoso

A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...

 Auguste Franchomme

Auguste Franchomme

Auguste-Joseph Franchomme was a French cellist and composer.Born in Lille, Franchomme studied at the local conservatoire with M...

.

Musical work

Upon his return to Bucharest, he became principal cellist of the Bucharest Philharmonic and also of the National Theater Orchestra. In later years, he served as conductor for both. He was also engaged as a professor at the Bucharest Conservatory

National University of Music Bucharest

The National University of Music Bucharest is a university-level school of music located in Bucharest, Romania. Established as a school of music in 1863 and reorganized as an academy in 1931, it has functioned as a public university since 2001...

, where one of his students was George Georgescu

George Georgescu

George Georgescu was a Romanian conductor. The moving force behind the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra for decades beginning shortly after World War I, a protégé of Artur Nikisch and a close associate of George Enescu, he received honors from the French and communist Romanian governments and...

, later to become an important conductor after a hand injury forced him to abandon a successful career as a cellist.

Despite his many occupations and duties, Dimitrescu found time to compose orchestral and opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic works as well as chamber music. In fact, it was his great love of chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 which led him to found Bucharest's first permanent string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

. He served as its cellist for many years. Thus it comes as no surprise to find that throughout his long musical life, Dimitrescu composed string quartets, seven in all.

• Dans ţănănesc (Peasants Dance; also known as "Rustic Dance") for cello and piano, Op.15
• Serenada română (Romanian Serenade) for cello and piano
• String Quartet No.1 in G major, Op.21
• String Quartet No.4 in g minor
• Concerto for cello and orchestra

External links

• Constantin Dimetrescu String Quartet No.1, Op.21 Soundbites & Information.