| Iosif Sava | |
| Birth Name: | Iosef Segal |
| Birth Date: | 1933 2, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Iași, Romania |
| Death Place: | Bucharest, Romania |
| Resting Place: | Filantropia Cemetery |
| Occupation: | Musicologist, television personality |
| Nationality: | Romanian |
Iosif Sava-Segal (b. Iosef Segal; 15 February 1933, Iași, Romania - d. 18 August 1998, Bucharest, Romania), known as Iosif Sava, was a Romanian musicologist and pianist. He was particularly renowned for his decades-long live radio and television shows during which he invited famous personalities from different realms of Romanian culture to discuss their perspectives of the cultural phenomenon.
Iosif Sava came from a Jewish family with a centuries-long musical tradition. His father, Bernard (1897–1958), was a longstanding violist the Iasi Philharmonic and a composer and arranger for the State Jewish Theater. His grandfather, Iosef (1868–1927), was a violinist and a collaborator of both Avrom Goldfadn, the founder of the Yiddish theater, and of Gavriil Musicescu. His great-grandfather was among the first graduates of the Iași Conservatory founded in 1860.[1] [2]
Sava graduated from the Iasi National College in 1951 and studied Philosophy at Bucharest University, obtaining his degree in 1955. He concurrently pursued his musical studies, first at the Conservatory and the Arts High School in Iași (1944-1951) and later at the National University of Music Bucharest (1962-1966)[3]
He became interested in journalism while in high school, collaborating at local newspapers ("Opinia"/ "The Opinion") in Iași. Once in Bucharest, he joined the staff of the daily Scînteia Tineretului where he worked for 16 years. At least initially, his writing encompassed not only classical music reviews but also articles aimed at popularizing science.[4] It was during this time - in the 1950s, at the height of communism - that he was advised to change his name from Iosef Segal to something that sounded more authentically native. In response, he randomly chose the pen name Iosif Sava and the official name Iosif Sava-Segal, not wanting to give up the name of his Levite ancestors. Throughout his career, he continued to contribute hundreds of essays and reviews to multiple Romanian newspapers and periodicals.
In 1972, Iosif Sava started (for the first couple of years with co-host Teodora Albescu) a weekly talk-show on the Romanian Radio entitled 'Invitațile Euterpei"/ "Euterpe’s Invitations", that continued to air until his untimely death. The goal was to bring classical music into everyone's home, with topics ranging from Monteverdi's oeuvre to analyses of Mahler's symphonies and from great centers of classical music to famous interpreters' recordings.
In 1980 he started working in television, producing a weekly - " Musical Soirée" - on TVR's second channel. The live show was taken off the air in 1985 and resumed only in 1990 after the downfall of Nicolae Ceaușescu. The "Musical Soirée" served as a discussion forum featuring representative figures of the Romanian intelligentsia. It provided them with a platform to address not only issues related to their own body of work and their relationship to music, but also to engage in discussions about cultural policies and other timely matters. Many noteworthy intellectuals of the younger generation were introduced to the general public through Sava's show. Additionally, always eager to identify and promote talented young performers, he featured several fresh musical interpreters on each show.[5]
In early 1998, Iosif Sava, who was then also the editor-in-chief of the TVR cultural newsroom, was removed from Romanian television under the pretext of mandatory retirement rules. The highly successful 'Musical Soirée' was abruptly interrupted. Despite his bitterness, he embarked on a new venture, producing a show called 'Home Music Salon - Sava's List' on Pro TV. Unfortunately, it was short-lived due to his untimely death.[6] [7]
Sava firmly believed that one cannot write about music without practical experience as an interpreter. Starting in 1974, he collaborated with Romanian soloists and chamber ensembles such as "Musica Rediviva", "Quodlibet Musicum", and "Consortium Violae", serving as a pianist, harpsichordist, or organist in numerous concerts throughout Romania and Europe. These collaborations eventually resulted in several recordings.[8]
He was a prolific author. Whether working alone or in collaboration, he published more than 70 volumes, including musical encyclopedic dictionaries, works aimed at making classical music more accessible to a broader audience, biographies, dialogues with Romanian personalities (some of whom appeared on his radio or TV talk shows), and several volumes of memoirs. A selected list appears below:
A member of the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Romania (UCMR) since 1972, he has been awarded six UCMR prizes over time. Additionally, he has been honored with the Romanian Academy Prize, four prizes of the Association of Television Professionals of Romania, the Prize of the College of Music Critics (1980); the prize of the „Actualitatea Muzicală (Musical Actuality)” magazine.[9]
In 2005, the School of Music and Fine Arts No. 1 in Bucharest, initially established in 1959, has been named "Iosif Sava"[10] in honor of its legacy. The school organizes an annual national competition for young musicians bearing the "Iosif Sava" name spanning three categories: essay. individual instruments, and chamber music.[11]
Since September 1998, the ACCUMM Foundation,[12] founded by the writer and filmmaker Petru Maier Bianu (September 2, 1947 - August 22, 2011), has been organizing the "Iosif Sava" Music Season, hosted by the Museum of Bucharest at the Șuțu Palace[13]
Iosif Sava's name was given to a small square near the National University of Music in Bucharest, where his bust has been erected.[14] [15]
The "Musical Soirée" series has been reprised multiple times on Romanian Television as the discussions between Sava and his guests continued to remain relevant for successive generations of viewers.[16] [17] [18] Several of Sava's "Soirées" have been uploaded to YouTube in order to make them widely accessible.