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

 

Salcâmi albi orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 31152 1929

Sârba Expoziției de la Paris orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu HMV JB 296 1939

Sârba lui Ilie (Vlădescu) orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 8411 1926

Sârba lui Marin Nebunu orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Odeon X 72051 1927

Sârba lui Moțoi orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Odeon 301.989 1926

Sârba și hora din Teiș orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia DV 77 1930

Scherzo pian Columbia D 30702 1929

Scrisoarea de amor orchestra sa de la Athénée Palace HMV AM 536 1926

Serenade No 1 In A Major orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia 14143 A 7338 1928

Serenade pian Columbia D 8572 H 1260 1927

Souvenir orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia 14143 A 7337 1928

Trece lelea pe colnic orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu HMV JB 295 1939

Valse de Brahms pian Columbia D 8571 1927

Valse destiny orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 31121 1929

Walzer in e dur orchestra Grigoraș Dinicu Columbia D 8568 1927