Discovering the Symphonies of George Enescu

Cristian Măcelaru leading the Orchestra National de France (photograph by Christophe Abramowitz, courtesy of Radio France)

Earlier this month Deutsche Grammophon released a three-CD album of performances of the first three symphonies composed by George Enescu. The conductor is Cristian Măcelaru, leading the Orchestra National de France, where he is Music Director. This past April he was named to be the next Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

These days one is more likely to encounter Enescu’s music in a violin recital, rather than an orchestral performance. Indeed, at the end of last month, Daniel Hope played his “Impromptu Concertante” in Herbst Theatre with pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips as his accompanist. Where the orchestral repertoire is concerned, during the last century Enescu was probably best known for his two Romanian Rhapsodies (Opus 11), the first of which has secured a solid place in at least one popular high school music textbook. On the other hand, the advance material I received when this new collection (which included both rhapsodies) was released declared that “the three symphonies are yet to be discovered as truly centre [sic] pieces of the symphonic repertoire.”

Having now listened to all three of those symphonies, I cannot nod in agreement with that phrase. The best I can say is that Enescu definitely had a keen ear for instrumental sonorities. He could deploy the full resources of an orchestra and consistently summon up just the right blends of coloration. On the other hand the structures of the individual symphonic movements leave much to be desired. He guided both of the rhapsodies with a sure hand migrating from one theme to the next; but there was far less sense of a well-planned journey in any of the individual symphonic movements, let alone in any one of the symphonies taken as a whole.

All three of these symphonies are early works, composed between 1905 and 1918. (Opus 11 was composed in 1901.) Two much later symphonies were begun in 1935 and 1941, respectively; but they were left uncompleted when Enescu died in 1955. Pascal Bentoiu prepared completed version of them between 1995 and 1996, but I have to wonder if dealing with the architectural scale of a four-movement symphony just was not in the composer’s wheelhouse. Personally, I would be happier if the current crop of conductors would go back to the Opus 11 rhapsodies to serve “overture duty” for the programs they prepare.