ROMANIAN RHAPSODY

Roots begets classical begets jazz: Romanian composer George Enescu (1881–1955) led his urban audiences back to the countryside by drawing heavily on regional folk tunes, suffusing the arid strings of the farmers with broad orchestral scope. His most beloved compositions, the two Romanian Rhapsodies and the opera Œdipe, were especially defiant to traditional classical confines; they’ll be well served tonight, when an ensemble of high-demand jazz cats further blur their borders. Enescu Re-Imagined assembles eight of the city’s most avant-garde underground players—including violinist Mat Maneri, trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum, and saxophonist Tony Malaby—for a wild, contemporary bop re-envisioning of Enescu’s sonatas and symphonies. Trust us, this kind of night only happens once every three centuries.

Tue., Oct. 20, 8 p.m., 2009