Description

GRIGORAS IONICA DINICU (BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, APRIL 3, 1889 – BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, MARCH 28, 1949)

 

 

 

 

Grigoraș Dinicu was a Romanian violin virtuoso and composer of Roma ethnicity. He is most famous for his often-played virtuoso violin showpiece “Hora staccato” (1906) and for making popular the tune Ciocârlia, composed by his grandfather Angheluș Dinicu for “nai” (the Romanian pan flute). It is rumored that Jascha Heifetz once said that Grigoraș Dinicu was the greatest violinist he had ever heard. He was born in Bucharest, in the neighborhood of the lăutari named Scaune (Chairs). Because his father was busy with his activity as a lăutar, he handed him over to “moș Zamfir”, an old violinist, who taught him the first tunes. He attended the Bucharest Conservatory, where he studied with Dumitru Georgescu-Kiriac. The most famous of his teachers was Carl Flesch, the violin pedagogue, with whom he studied in 1902. He received a scholarship at the Vienna Conservatory, but he was not allowed to go there because he was Romani, an episode that he never forgot. After graduation he played violin with the Orchestra of the Ministry of Public Instruction, and also performed as a soloist. Hora staccato dates from the beginning of this period; he wrote it as a graduation exercise. For forty years, from 1906 until 1946, he directed popular music concerts. He also toured abroad as a soloist and conductor, and he also played a great deal of light music in nightclubs, hotels, restaurants, and cafés in Bucharest and throughout Western Europe. His music is mostly for violin and piano, though some pieces (such as Hora staccato) have later been arranged for other combinations of instruments (for example, trumpet and piano, as well as violin and orchestra and a popular arrangement by Russian mandolin virtuoso Dave Apollon). He died in Bucharest of laryngeal cancer.

 

TRACKLIST

 

Doina Oltului orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 8412 1926

Elegie pian Columbia D 8572 H 1259 1927

Foaie verde matostat orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu HMV JB 294 1939

Gheorghiță militar și șapte săptămâni din post orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu HMV JB 298 OHR 477 1939

Grossmuetterchen orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 30860 1929

Hora boierească orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia DV 76 1930

Hora calu orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 8566 1927

Hora lui Dobrică orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 8411 1926

Hora lui Gore orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu HMV JB 298 OHR 478 1939

Hora lui Ion Dinicu orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu HMV JB 296 1939

Hora lui Niță Colțatu orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 31152 1929

Hora lui Teișanu orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia DV 77 1929

Hora lui Timoșca orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 8413 1926

Hora Staccato orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 14144 1928

Hungarian Potpourri orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia 14144 A 7336 1928