Dinu Mihăilescu: ROMerican Avant-Garde in Review
Dinu Mihăilescu, piano
Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
October 31, 2025
On a windy Halloween night, Romanian pianist Dinu Mihăilescu blew into town to present a program he titled “ROMerican Avant-Garde” – the “RO” being works from Romanian composers Remus Georgescu and George Ensescu, the “Merican” being works by Americans John Cage, Jacob Druckman, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and a “surprise addition” of Philip Glass, and the “Avant-Garde” to seemingly indicate the “modernity” of the works when they were written. The program was centered around Druckman’s The Seven Deadly Sins. Mr. Mihăilescu wrote the notes for the program, and one can learn more about him by visiting his webpage – Dinu Mihailescu | Pianist.
About the program, Mr. Mihăilescu writes that ROMerican is “a concert-experience lasting about 50 minutes without applause, and almost without interruption between the works,” further writing that post COVID-19 “in view of the habits that have radically changed since the beginning of the pandemic, I see here an opportunity to change the way I give classical piano recitals in order to make them accessible to a new audience beyond the habitual traditional music lovers.” This is a lofty goal, but one that Mr. Mihăilescu only partially succeeded in realizing, for reasons that will be given later.
There were some introductory remarks from the presenter and Mr. Mihăilescu – including the pianist’s announcement of a program “surprise” to be inserted, with the almost casual “you will be able to guess who it is” without mention of the composer or where in the program it was to appear. This already belied the words in the previous paragraph -“accessible” is not making your audience guess! Not to mention that this was in addition to the 50 minutes already on the program without break, which is stretching the stamina of the audience beyond reasonable limits.
Opening with John Cage’s In a Landscape, an early work that is rather tame for Cage, Mr. Mihăilescu displayed sensitivity in phrasing and color – the main challenges, as the piece itself is quite simple. One must say that this work is much too long for the ideas it presents. It sort of meanders about, repeating itself, and even the most able player is hard-pressed to keep the listener engaged. Happily, the Remus Georgescu Three Miniatures for Piano which followed brought energy and spirit to the forefront. The nightmares of the Berceuse, the romanticism of the Sicilienne, and the biting sarcasm of the Marche were rendered by Mr. Mihăilescu with great skill. These are fun pieces, and Mr. Mihăilescu reveled in them.
Then it was time for the program centerpiece, Jacob Druckman’s The Seven Deadly Sins. Curiously, the notes did not mention the “sins” or the structure of the work. Was one supposed to know that Pride, Envy and Anger were the first section, Sloth the second section, and Avarice, Gluttony, and Carnality the third? Of course not! A sin of omission! As for the playing itself, it was truly outstanding. Mr. Mihăilescu has more than enough technique and intelligence to deal with the challenges that abound in this work. The fact that he did this (and every other work in his program) from memory was particularly impressive. There were no slips, lapses, or hesitations- and that is not easily accomplished in a work as thorny as this. The Druckman was far and away the highlight of the evening.
Leonard Bernstein’s For Aaron Copland from Seven Anniversaries followed as something of a palate cleanser – it is so brief that it was already over when one was just starting to settle in. Now, was the “surprise”- Philip Glass’s Etude No. 2. Why Mr. Mihăilescu felt this was necessary to add is anyone’s guess. While he did play it well (evenly played without being robotic and with a good balance of touch in the repetitions), it mainly served to add another seven minutes to the program without adding anything notable. The Four Piano Blues by Aaron Copland followed the Glass, and I particularly enjoyed them, as there are many reminders of the composer’s 1926 Piano Concerto, of which I am very fond.
Mr. Mihăilescu ended the program with an enchanting Carillon Nocturne from George Enescu’s Suite No.3, Op. 18. The audience gave Mr. Mihăilescu a standing ovation.
Did I say end? Ah, but no – it was now time for the four (!) “encores” – all so clearly planned in advance. Two involved a second pianist, Philippe Boaron. The first, Night, by Fazil Say, which started as good Halloween fun, wore out its welcome long before its ten minutes were completed. Since we are still in the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth, Vallée des cloches from Miroirs, and Jardin Féerique from Ma mère l’oye (with Mr. Boaron) were offered, and finally a work by Elgar (Mr. Mihăilescu called the title from the stage as almost an afterthought while the noises of shuffling about of both piano benches and the audience made it impossible to hear clearly). One can understand the impulse to want to maximize the opportunity to play on this stage, but to add another twenty minutes after already going over an hour without any break for the audience is remarkably tone-deaf. The applause had already completely stopped before Mr. Mihăilescu reappeared to foist his next encore on the audience, and this scenario repeated itself three times, with each repeat shedding more and more of the audience. Mr. Mihăilescu is an excellent musician, but these are serious issues that could have served to obliterate his outstanding work, which would be a real shame.
