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| GEORGE ENESCU |
| (2007-09-06) |
| Last updated: 2007-12-01 18:33 EET |
George Enescu’s exceptional personality and work have been the subject of thousands of pages of studies and surveys. He was born in Liveni, Botosani county (in the north east of Romania) on August 19th 1881. Evincing a special inclination towards music, he started playing the violin at just 4 years of age. A year later, he went on stage for the first time and began taking composition lessons with a famous composer of the time, Eduard Caudella. The Conservatory in Vienna and Paris; the contacts he maintained throughout his life with great musicians and cultural personalities of his epoch; all these contributed to the development of a complex personality, with a solid musical training and astonishing cultural knowledge. Enescu was a very gifted musician, mastering skills in five different domains: violin, composition, piano, conducting and teaching.
At the same time, Enescu was notable thanks to the deeply humane side of his character and his excessive modesty. He was a very inspired composer, his early works being dominated by Romanian folklore; in time, after accumulating much experience, his opuses become more elevated and modern in terms of musical language and style, being closer to German and French music. Enescu was a great violinist, being considered one of the greatest performers of the “Sonata” by Cesar Franck; he was also a great pianist, proof of this being the few recordings he left behind. He was also a great teacher. He was responsible for the development of Yehudi Menuhin. This is quite an achievement – Menuhin loved Romania first and foremost due to Enescu. Menuhin’s devotion to this country remained long after his great teacher and friend passed away.
Enescu was also a great patriot, who performed for the wounded during WWI, and refused to leave the country during the Second World War. He founded the Union of Composers and Musicologists together with other musicians who formed the “golden” generation of Romanian music. He gave many concerts in Bucharest and across Romania and performed with much passion, irrespective of the number of people in the audience.
George Enescu was a prominent artist whose main traits were seriousness, tenacity and hard work.
Admired by Queen Elisabeth of Romania (also known as Carmen Sylva) he was frequently asked to play during the evening parties held at the Royal Palace in Bucharest, or at Peles Castle in Sinaia. Some beautiful lieder emerged from the combination of the Queen’s lyrics and Enescu’s music. Of Enescu’s works, we can make special mention of the following: the two “Romanian Rhapsodies” for orchestras- no. 1 and no. 2, Suite 1 in C Major – with the spectacular first part “Prelude”, “The Romanian Poem”- with the Royal Hymn at the end, Suite no. 3, “Villageoise”- from the country, Sonata no. 3 for violin and piano, the Chamber Symphony, and Seven Songs, with lyrics by Clement Marot for voice and piano. The lyrical tragedy “Oedipus” inspired by Sophocles’ tragedy, was written on a libretto by Edmond Fleg and premiered in Paris on March 13th 1936, enjoying huge success. A new staging of Enescu’s masterpiece will take place in Paris in the 2008-209 season but we should not forget the performances of Oedipus in Bucharest: the classical version by Jean Ranzescu with baritone David Ohanesian featuring in the leading role, and the modern versions presented in recent editions of the “George Enescu” International Festival – by theater director Andrei Serban in 1998 and director Petrica Ionescu in 2005.
Enescu’s preoccupations went beyond the sphere of music: a few years ago, the “George Enescu” Museum hosted by the Cantacuzino Palace displayed various drawings and caricatures by George Enescu. Usually sketched on the corner of a score or sheet of paper, his drawings represent characters from the maestro’s entourage or silhouettes, all of them revealing a refined and discreet humor. The drawings are not dated and don’t mention the identity of the character.
George Enescu was married to Maria Tescanu Rosetti, known as Maruca Enescu Cantacuzino, whom he loved until the end of his life; they went to live in Paris shortly after the communist regime was instated in Romania. He lived modestly in the “Atala” hotel run by a Romanian named Florescu, where he died on May 4, 1955. To pay homage to the outstanding personality of the Romanian musician George Enescu, the Bucharest Philharmonics bears his name, as does the International Festival, held in Bucharest every two years since 1957.
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2025-04-10
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