Bentoiu, Pascal
Bentoiu, Pascal
Bentoiu, Pascal, Romanian composer and writer on music; b. Bucharest, April 22, 1927. He was a pupil of M. Jora in Bucharest (1943–48). After working at the Inst. for Folklore there (1953–56), he pursued research in ethnomusicology and aesthetics. He publ. three books on aesthetics: Imagine şi sens (Bucharest, 1971), Deschideri spre lumea muzicü (Bucharest, 1973), and Gîndirea muzi-cala (Bucharest, 1975), and a study of Enesco’s works, Capodopere enesciene (Bucharest, 1984). As a composer, he won the State Prize in 1964, the Prix Italia of the RAI in 1968, and the Enesco Prize of the Romanian Academy in 1974. He was president of the Romanian Composers Union from 1990.
Works
DRAMATIC: Opera: Amorul doctor (The Love Doctor; 1964; Bucharest, Dec. 23, 1966); Jertifirea Iphigeniei (The Immolation of Iphigenia; Bucharest, Sept. 1968); Hamlet (1969; Bucharest, Nov. 19, 1971). ORCH.: Concert Overture (1948; rev. 1961); 2 piano concertos (1954, 1960); Suite Transylvania (1955); Luceafarul (The Morning Star), symphonic poem (1957); Violin Concerto (1958); Bucharest Images (1959); 8 syms. (1965, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1985, 1986, 1987); Eminesciana III (1976); Cello Concerto (1989). CHAMBER: Piano Sonata (1947; rev. 1957); 6 string quartets (1953–82); Violin Sonata (1962). VOCAL: Various works.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire