George Enescu

George Enescu (pronunciation in Romanian: /'ʤěor.ʤe e'nes.ku/; known in France as Georges Enesco) (August 19, 1881, Liveni – May 4, 1955, Paris) was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher, preeminent Romanian musician of the 20th century, one of the greatest performers of his time. The George Enescu Festival is held in his honour.

Biography

Filarmonica "George Enescu"- Ateneul Român, Bucharest
George Enescu Museum, BucharestHe was born in the village of Liveni, Romania (Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County), and showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu aged five, created his first composition. His father presented him to the professor and composer Eduard Caudella. At the age of seven, he was guided to follow his studies at the Vienna Conservatory. Here he studied with Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr., Robert Fuchs, and Sigismond Bachrich, and graduated before his 13th birthday, earning the silver medal. In his Viennese concerts young Enescu played Brahms, Sarasate and Mendelssohn. In 1895 he went to Paris to continue his studies. He studied violin with Martin Marsick, harmony with André Gédalge, and composition with Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré.

Many of Enescu's works were influenced by Romanian folk music, his most popular compositions being the Romanian Rhapsodies (1901–2), the opera Oédipe (1936), and the suites for orchestra. He also wrote five symphonies (two of them unfinished), a symphonic poem Vox maris, and much chamber music (three sonatas for violin and piano, two for cello and piano, a piano trio, quartets with and without piano, a dixtuor, an octet for strings, a piano quintet, a chamber symphony for twelve solo instruments). Some of his creations were composed in Sinaia, at his villa in Luminiş.

In 1923 he made his debut as a conductor in a concert given by the Philadelphia Orchestra in New York. He also conducted the New York Philharmonic between 1937 and 1938. In 1939 he married Maria Rosetti (known as the Princess Cantacuzino through her first husband Mihail Cantacuzino), a good friend of the later Queen Mary of Romania. While staying in Bucharest, Enescu lived in the Cantacuzino Palace on Calea Victoriei (now the Muzeu Naţional George Enescu, dedicated to his work).

He lived in Paris and in Romania, but after World War II and the communist occupation of Romania, he remained in Paris.

He was also a noted violin teacher. Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras, Ivry Gitlis, Arthur Grumiaux, and Ida Haendel were among his pupils. He promoted contemporary Romanian music, playing works of Constantin Silvestri, Mihail Jora, Ionel Perlea and Marţian Negrea.

On his passing in 1955, George Enescu was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

The symphony orchestra of Bucharest is named in his honor; that city also houses a museum in his memory.

Works
Enescu’s published output extends to only 33 opus numbers, several of these being very large-scale works (the three symphonies and Oedipe). The demands of a busy career as a performer were not the only reason for this comparative paucity of finished output. Enescu was also an obsessive perfectionist: many of his published works were repeatedly redrafted before their first performances, and revised several times thereafter. Moreover, as recent research has made increasingly clear, the works which he did allow to be published were merely the tip of a huge submerged mass of manuscript work-in-progress (the bulk of which is held by the Enescu Museum, Bucharest). The leading authority on these manuscripts, Clemansa Firca, suggests that there may be ‘several hundred’ compositions in varying degrees of rough draft or near-completion. In some cases, too, the same thematic material would be re-worked in manuscript for decades before emerging in one of the published works.

Such inner continuities are obscured, however, by the striking stylistic changes which took place during Enescu’s seven decades as a composer. His first student works (from Vienna and his early Paris years) show the heavy influence of Schumann and Brahms. French influence comes to the fore with his Second Violin Sonata (1899), where the fluid piano textures and delicate combination of chromaticism and modal cadences are strongly reminiscent of Gabriel Fauré. This sonata, written at the age of 17, was later described by Enescu as the first work in which he felt he was ‘becoming myself’. Yet, for the next 15 years or more, he continued to switch between a variety of stylistic idioms. His Octet for Strings (1900) combines rich late-Viennese chromaticism with ferocious contrapuntal energy; the First Symphony (1905) is an ambitious and sweepingly Romantic work with an explicit debt to Tristan und Isolde in the slow movement; but interspersed with these compositions were a number of works that sometimes have been considered neo-classical or neo-Baroque, including the First Orchestral Suite (1903), the Second Piano Suite (1903) and the limpid Sept chansons de Clément Marot (1908), in which the piano part imitates, at times, the sonorities of lute music. The culmination of this series of works was the Second Orchestral Suite (1915), whose bustling mock-Baroque figurations foreshadow Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony (1917) and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella (1919). Yet, almost contemporaneously, Enescu’s dense and intricate Second Symphony (1914) explored the harmonic world of Richard Strauss’s Salome and Elektra.

Traditional accounts of Enescu’s musical development place great emphasis on the elements of Romanian folk music which appear in his works at an early stage – above all, in the Poème roumain (1897) and the two Romanian Rhapsodies (1901). (These latter works were to become an albatross round Enescu’s neck: later in his life he bitterly resented the way they had dominated and narrowed his reputation as a composer.) But he quickly tired of the limited possibilities offered by the task of ‘setting’ Romanian songs and dances; as he remarked in 1924, the only thing a composer could do with an existing piece of folk music was ‘to rhapsodize it, with repetitions and juxtapositions’.

The real significance of his Romanian folk-heritage would emerge later in the growth of Enescu’s musical language, as he searched for new ways of developing, and combining, pure melodic lines. Particularly influential here was the doina, a type of meditative song, frequently melancholic, with an extended and flexible line in which melody and ornamentation merge into one. (This was the type of song for which Béla Bartók had coined the phrase parlando rubato.) The melodic line was, for Enescu, the vital principle of music: as he wrote in his autobiography, ‘I’m not a person for pretty successions of chords … a piece deserves to be called a musical composition only if it has a line, a melody, or, even better, melodies superimposed on one another’. His urge to superimpose melodies led, in several early works, to some exorbitant uses of cyclical form: in the last movement of the Octet for Strings, for example, all the melodic elements of the work return, to be piled one on top of another. In his mature works, however, Enescu made increasing use of the less mechanically contrapuntal, more organic technique of heterophony – a form of loose melodic superimposition which was also rooted in Romanian folk music.

Some elements of Enescu’s mature style began to emerge at the end of World War I, with the completion of the Third Symphony (1918) and the First String Quartet (1920). Both works display an organicist style of development, in which germinal themes, intervals and note-patterns are constantly adapted and recombined. As Enescu worked on his opera Oedipe during the 1920s, this method lent itself naturally to the elaboration of leitmotifs: one modern study (by Octavian Cosma) has identified 21 such motifs in the work, although their functioning is so germinal and cellular that it is possible for listeners to experience the whole work without being aware of the presence of leitmotifs at all. Another feature of the opera is the minutely detailed orchestration, which frequently makes use of solo instruments within the orchestral texture. This concentration on individual voices may help to explain why the output of his final decades is dominated by chamber music. Only two major orchestral works were completed after Oedipe: the Third Orchestral Suite (1938) and the symphonic poem Vox Maris (c1954). (Three works left in unfinished draft have, however, been completed recently by Romanian composers: the Caprice roumain for violin and orchestra (1928), completed by Cornel Ţăranu, and the Fourth (1934) and Fifth (1941) symphonies, completed by Pascal Bentoiu.)

The series of chamber works which crowns Enescu’s output includes the Third Violin Sonata (1926), Piano Quintet (1940), Second Piano Quartet (1944), Second String Quartet (1951) and Chamber Symphony (1954). Enescu stays within the bounds of late-Romantic tonality and classical forms but transmutes both into a very personal idiom; ceaseless motivic development is woven into elaborate adaptations of sonata form, variation-sequences and cyclical recombinations. Romanian folk elements are also present, sometimes in the form of percussive Bartókian dances, but the most characteristic use of folk music here involves the meditative doina. In several works (the Third Orchestral Suite, the Impressions d’enfance for violin and piano (1940) and the Third Violin Sonata, as commented on by Enescu) the use of such folk elements was linked to the theme of childhood reminiscence: what Enescu aimed at was not the alienating effect of quasi-primitivism which modernists sought in folk music (Stravinsky, for example), but, on the contrary, a childlike sense of immediacy and intimacy. That, indeed, is the special character of many of his finest works.

List of compositions by George Enescu

With opus number, by genre

Symphonies
Opus 13: Symphony No. 1 in E flat major (1905)
Opus 17: Symphony No. 2 in A major (1912-1914)
Opus 21: Symphony No. 3 in C major, with chorus (1916-1918)

Concerti
Opus 8: Symphonie Concertante in B minor, for cello and orchestra (1901)

Suites
Opus 9: Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major (1903)
Opus 20: Orchestral Suite No. 2 in C major (1915)
Opus 27: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major Suite Villageoise (1937-1938)

Miscellaneous
Opus 1: Poème Roumaine, symphonic suite for orchestra (1897)
Opus 11: Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A major (1901)
Opus 11: Romanian Rhapsody No. 2 in D major (1902)
Opus 32: Ouverture de Concert sur des Thèmes dans le Caractère Populaire Roumain in A major (1948)
Opus 31: Vox Maris in G major, symphonic poem for tenor, three-part choir and orchestra (1954)

Chamber

Quartets/Quintets
Opus 16: Piano Quartet No. 1 in D major (1909)
Opus 22: String Quartet No. 1 in E flat major (1916-1920)
Opus 29: Piano Quintet in A minor (1940)
Opus 30: Piano Quartet No. 2 in D minor (1943-1944)
Opus 22: String Quartet No. 2 in G major (1950-1952)

Sonatas

Violin
Opus 2: Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major (1897)
Opus 6: Violin Sonata No. 2 in F minor (1899)
Opus 25: Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor dans le caractère populaire roumain (1926)

Cello
Opus 26: Cello Sonata No. 1 in F minor (1898)
Opus 26: Cello Sonata No. 2 in C major (1935)

Miscellaneous
Opus 7: Octet for Strings (1900)
Opus 12: Intermède No. 1, for strings (1902)
Opus 12: Intermède No. 2, for strings (1903)
Opus 14: Dixtour in D major, for wind instruments(1906)
Opus 28: Impressions d'Enfance, for violin and piano (1938)
Opus 33: Chamber Symphony, for 12 instruments (1954)

Piano
Opus 3: Piano Suite No. 1 in G minor Dans le style ancien (1897)
Opus 5: Variations for Two Pianos on an Original Theme in A flat major (1898)
Opus 10: Piano Suite No. 2 in D major (1903)
Opus 18: Piano Suite No.3 Pièces Impromptues (1913-1916)
Opus 24: Piano Sonata No. 1 in F sharp minor (1924)
Opus 24: Piano Sonata No. 3 in D major (1933-1935)

Opera
Opus 23: Oedipe, tragédie lyrique in four acts, libretto by Edmond Fleg (1910-1931)

Lieder
Opus 4: Trois Melodies sur poèmes de Jules Lemaitre et Sully Prudhomme, for bass and piano (1898)
Le Désert
Le Galop
Soupir
Opus 15: Sept Chansons de Clement Marot, for tenor and piano (1907-1908)
Estrenne a Anne
Languir me fais
Aux damoyselles paresseusses
Estrenne de la Rose
Present de le couleur blanche
Changeons propos
Du conflict en douleur
Opus 19: Trois Mélodies sur Poèmes de Fernand Gregh (1915-1916)
Pluie
Le Silence Musicien
L'Ombre est Bleue

Works without opus number, by genre

Symphonies
Study Symphony No. 1 in D minor (1895)
Study Symphony No. 2 in F major (1895)
Study Symphony No. 3 in F major (1896)
Study Symphony No. 4 in E flat major (1898)
Symphony No. 4 (unfinished, 1934; completed by Pascal Bentoiu)
Symphony No. 5 in D major, with tenor and female choir (unfinished, 1941; completed by Pascal Bentoiu)

Concerti
Ballade, for violin and orchestra (1895)
Fantaisie, for piano and orchestra (1896)
Caprice Roumain, for violin and orchestra (unfinished, 1928; completed by Cornel Taranu)

Miscellaneous
Three Overtures for orchestra (1891-1894)
Sonata for Orchestra (1894)
Tragic Overture (1895)
Andantino from an orchestral suite (1896)
Triumphal Overture (1896)
Four Divertissements for orchestra (1896)
Pastorale-Fantaisie for orchestra (1899)
Isis, symphonic poem (unfinished, 1923; completed by Pascal Bentoiu)
Suite Châtelaine, for orchestra (unfinished, 1911; completed by Remus Georgescu)

Chamber

Trios/Quartets/Quintets
Quartet for four violins (1894)
Piano Quintet (1896)
Trio for two violins and cello (c.1899)
Aubade, Trio for violin, viola and cello (1899)
Piano Trio in A minor (1916)
Piano Trio (unfinished, 1942, completed by Pascal Bentoiu)

Miscellaneous
Opera, for violin and piano (1886)
Suite of variations for two violins (1894)
Tarantelle for violin and piano (1895)
Violin Sonata (1895)
Nocturne and Saltarello, for cello (1897)
Prélude, for two pianos, violin and cello (1898)
Sérénade en Sourdine, for violin and cello (c.1899)
Andante Religioso, for two cellos and organ (1900)
Pastorale, Menuet Triste et Nocturne, for violin and piano, four hands (1900)
Wind Septet, for flute, oboe, french horn, clarinet, basoon, horn and piano (1900)
Impromptu Concertant in G flat major, for violin and piano (1903)
Cantabile et Presto, for flute and piano (1904)
Allegro de Concert, for chromatic harp (1904)
Concertstück, for viola and piano (1906)
Légende, for trumpet and piano (1906)
Au Soir, poem for four trumpets (1906)
Aria and Scherzino, for violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano (1909)
Hora Unirei, for violin and piano (1917)

Piano
Waltz (1887)
Pièce d'Église (1889)
Rondo and Variations (1893)
Ballade (1894)
Introduction, Adagio and Allegro (1894)
Piano Sonata (1894)
Polka (1894-1895)
Sonatina, for four hands (1894-1895)
Romance, for four hands (1894-1895)
La Fileuse (1897)
Regrets (1898)
Impromptu (1898)
Suite for piano, four hands (1898)
Modérément (1898)
Allemande (c.1899)
Four-part fugue on an original subject (1895-1896)
Prelude (1896)
Scherzo (1896)
Impromptu (1900)
Prélude et Fugue (1903)
Nocturne (1907)
Pièce sur le nom de Fauré (1922)

Vocal/Choral

Cantatas
Vision de Saül (1895)
L'Aurore (1898)
Cantate pour la Pose de la Prèmiere Pierre du Pont à Transbordeur de Bordeux, for military band, two harps, string orchestra, solo cello, choir, baritone solo, and cannons, verses by Albert Bureau (1908)

Lieder
Pensée Perdue, on verses by Sully Prudhomme (1898)
Wüstenbild, on verses by A. Roderich
Chant Indou, on verses by Mlle Géraldine Rolland (c.1898)
Dédicace (1899)
De ziua ta (1900)
Si j'étais Dieu, on verses by Sully Prudhomme (1897-1898)
Quarantine, on verses by Enescu (1899)
Prinz Waldvogelsgesang for voice, cello and piano (1901)
Ein Sonnenblick (1901)
De la Flûte au Cor, on verses by Fernand Gregh (1902)
Silence, on verses by Albert Samain (1905)
Doina, for baritone, viola and cello, on folk verses from a collection by Vasile Alecsandri (1905)
Morgengebet(1908)
Eu mă duc, Codrul Rămîne (c.1917)
On the verses of Carmen Sylva:
Sphinx (1898)
Der Bläser (1898)
Zaghaft (1898)
Armes Mägdlein (1898)
Junge Schmerzen, for mezzo-soprano, bass and piano (1898)
Der Schmetterlingskuss (1898)
Reue 1898]])
Schlaflos (1898)
Maurerlied (1899)
Königshusarenlied (1899)
Souhait (1899)
Mittagsläuten (1900)
Regen (1903)
Die Kirschen for soprano, baritone, cello and piano (1904)
Entsagen (1907)

Miscellaneous
Waldegesang, for mixed choir a cappella (1898)
Die Nächtliche Hershau, for baritone, choir and orchestra, on verses by Joseph Christian Zedlitz (1900)
Plugar, for mixed four-part choir a cappella, on verses by Radulescu-Niger (1900)
Oda, for choir and piano or organ, on verses by I. Soricu (1904)
Hymn Jubiliar, for choir, military band and harp (1906)
Strigoii, for soprano, tenor, baritone, chorus and orchestra, on verses by Eminescu (unfinished,1916; completed by Cornel Taranu)

Unfinished works, chronologically
Piano Quartet (fragment;1893)
String Quartet, in C major (fragment; 1894)
String Quartet, in D minor (fragment; 1894)
Ahasvérus, cantata (prologue only; 1895)
Violin Concerto, in A minor (two movements; 1896)
String Quartet (1896)
Two Romanian Suites for orchestra (1896-1897)
String Quartet (first movement; 1897)
Bacarolle, for piano (1897)
Octet for string, in D major (fragment; 1898)
Moderato for violin and piano, in F minor (fragment; c.1898)
Piano Concerto, in D minor (draft of first movement; c.1898)
Piano Concerto, in E minor (draft of first movement; c.1898)
Suite Orientale, for orchestra (fragment; 1900)
String Quartet, in C major (one movement only; 1906)
Violin Sonata, in A minor (fragment 'Torso'; 1911)
Piano Sonata (first movement; (1912)
Symphony, in F minor, for baritone, choir and orchestra, on the words of Psalm 86 (fragments; c.1917)
Symphonie Concertante, in C major, for violin and orchestra (draft; 1932)
Linişte, for choir of three equal voices a cappella, on verses by A.T.Stamatiad (brief extracts; 1946)
Allegro for chamber orchestra (draft)
Nocturne 'Ville d'Avrayen' for piano quartet (draft)
Voix de la Nature, symphonic suite (one movement, 'Nuages d'automne sur les forêts')
In addition to all of the unfinished works above, drafts of five other string quartets, eight other cantatas (among them La Fille de Jepthé, Antigone, Daphne) and Act I of a 'drame lyrique', Le Lotus Blue, were found, all of which were dated before 1900.