Mircea Basarab

Mircea Basarab was born on 4 May 1921 in Bucharest (Romania). He studied at the Bucharest Conservatory under Mihail Jora (harmony, counterpoint and composition), George Breazul (music theory and solfeggio), Constantin Brailoiu (music history), Ioan D. Chirescu, Vasile Popovici and Ion Ghiga from 1940 to 1948.

Mircea Basarab began to compose seriously at the end of his studies and created several works in the late 1940s and the 1950s. But he mainly turned to work as a teacher and conductor and so in the end Mircea Basarab's work catalogue only consists of some handful of compositions.

His teaching career started in 1951 when he became lecturer at the Bucharest Conservatory. He was appointed professor in 1964 and taught conducting, orchestration and score reading until his retirement.

Mircea Basarab's conducting career started in the early 1950s as well. In 1953 he was conductor of the Orchestral Ensemble of the People's Council (Ansamblul Consiliului Popular) and became prinicipal conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra "George Enescu" already in 1954. He held this position until his retirement in 1986.
Mircea Basarab died on 29 May 1995 in Bucharest (Romania).

The work catalogue of Mircea Basarab is small and consists of mainly orchestral works. This include a symphony, a symphonic triptych, a rhapsody for orchestra, symphonic variations, Divertimento for string orchestra and concertos for violin and oboe. Chamber compositions are a Nocturne and scherzo for piano and a Divertimento for percussion, clarinet and piano.

Concerto for oboe and string orchestra

In my possession is a handwritten full score of the "Concerto for oboe and string orchestra" (Concert pentru oboi si orchestra de coarde) by Mircea Basarab. The work was composed in 1960. But the score was never published as far as I know. The manuscript here is a fair copy of the full score with some additional handwritten remarks. For that it seems likely that at least the additional corrections were done by Mircea Basarab, maybe even both handwritings. I don't know of a premiere performance of the work.

For information purposes I present here the full score of the work: