One of the most magnificent places to hear classical music performed is at the Romanian Athenaeum, Strada Franklin 1 (tel: (01) 315 6875). This splendid 19th-century building - looking like Bucharest's answer to London's St Paul's Cathedral - presents a fairytale backdrop, splendid acoustics and plays host to the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and other top performances. The lobby has a beautifully painted ceiling decorated in gold leaf and curved balconies cascading in ringlets of spiral staircase. A ring of pink marble columns is linked by flowing arches, where elaborate brass lanterns hang like gems from a necklace. Inside the concert hall, voluptuous frescoes cover the ceiling and walls. This remarkable décor usually can only be viewed by concert-goers.
Possibly the finest building in the city, with its sublime baroque cupola, stands proudly at the flux of the city's busiest public square, competing with the Athenee Palace Hilton hotel, the Royal Palace and the old national library for attention. The work of French architect Albert Galleron, who also designed the National Bank of Romania, the building was inaugarated on Febrary 26, 1888, and was built almost entirely with money donated by ordinary citizens of the capital, when a campaign called 'Give a penny for the Atheneum' rescued the project from folly after the original patrons ran out of funds. Today the seat of the Romanian Philarmonic George Enescu, the auditorium can seat 1,000 spectators comfortably, and is renowned worldwide for its outstanding acoustics.
I remember being around 10 years old when my mum put my new dress on me and my new shoes and we went to my first concert. First i was imppresed with the fancy dresses women were wearing and men dressed all in black, having a cigarette, talking and laughing in front of the Athenaeum. There is a small garden with benches and a statue of a romanian well known poet, Mihail Eminescu. After we met our friends, we all got inside, and it was like getting in another world. People were speaking more quietly, lots of fresces on the walls i kept staring at, the big tall ceiling and the tall columns. Going upstairs there was the big round room, coming from another century. The light was dim and you could hear only whispers and the people from the orchestra rehearsing. The concert was in the memory of Mihail Eminescu, the poet and it was absolutly beautiful. That was my first experience with the classical music at the Athenaeum and I never stopped loving classical music since. Next year mum took me to the opera. My firt opera I ever saw was Madamme Buterfly. Absolutely remarkable.
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