Enescu: Konzertstück for Viola / Violin Sonata No.2

George Enescu (1881-1955)

George Enescu entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1894 at the age of 13. His teachers included Jules Massenet and Gabriele Fauré. Today we know Enescu primarily as a composer, but he began his life in music as a violin prodigy, and it was in this capacity that he met Johannes Brahms whom he came to adulate and, especially at the beginning of his compositional career, began to imitate.

After completing his studies at the Conservatoire, Enescu began composing in earnest. In 1897 a concert was given in Paris devoted entirely to his works. In 1899, at age18, his first two orchestral compositions were premiered, and he completed the Op.6 violin sonata programmed in this CCMF concert series. 1901-1902 saw the premieres of his two most well-known works, the Romanian Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2, and in 1906 his Symphony No. 1 in E-flat Major was premiered in Paris. Enescu wrote of this symphony, 'The god of my own youthful adoration was Brahms, and I wrote my early work quite flagrantly in the manner of the immortal Johannes.' He was now 24, and this was the year he wrote the viola piece, also programmed in this series.

We could go on reviewing the biography of this astonishingly brilliant composer (he wrote over 400 works), virtuoso violinist, conductor, pianist and teacher (his violin students included Christian Ferras, Ida Haendel and Arthur Grumiaux), but a portrait of the man by his closest student tells us more about him than the facts of his life. Sir Yehudi Menuhin wrote:

If the reader would be able to imagine an encyclopedic mind twinned with the most generous and selfless heart that could be, all these – in a man with a noble and handsome appearance, with a romantic face always animated by creative genius whether he was speaking, teaching, conducting, playing the violin or the piano, but mostly while he was composing – the image would still not be complete. To me, Enescu is the the most extraordinary human being, the greatest musician, and the most powerful influence someone has ever had over me.

☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

George Enescu

Konzertstück

Jesus Rodolfo (va), Matei Varga (pf)

Merkin Concert Hall, Oct. 9, 2013
SCORE @ IMSLP

George Enescu
Concert Piece for viola & piano (1906)

In 1904 Enescu was invited by Gabriel Fauré to become a member of the examining jury for student competitions at the Conservatoire de Paris. During this period he composed competition pieces for violin, harp, trumpet and flute. But his most important contribution, rising well above a catalog of technical challenges designed to push Conservatoire students to their limits, was the virtuosic Concert Piece for viola and piano commissioned in 1906 by Fauré. The piece was dedicated to Théophile Laforge, the Conservatoire's first viola professor.

While this piece is a test of a violist's technical skills, it would be wrong to categorize it as a mere challenge. One will certainly hear most of the skills required of an accomplished string player, but these are artfully knitted into the fabric of a sonata-allegro form. One interesting example is his extensive use of arpeggiated figures. 'Arpeggio' comes from arpa, harp, and there is plenty of harp in this work, both in the viola and piano. At four points in the piece the viola plays a crimped-up transformation of the longer, flowing harp-like arpeggios in the piano. These flourishes are so tangled that they resemble fioriture, complex embellishments usually associated with coloratura passages in vocal music. These flourishes invariably cover modulations as they take the music up gradually by scale steps. In many ways this work is not only a challenge for violists, but for analysts as well. And a pure delight for the audience.

☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

George Enescu

Violin Sonata No.2, Op.6

Sorn Alexandru Horlea (vl), Bianca Maria Matei (pf)

Casteliotissa, Nicosia, Feb.17, 2015
SCORE @ IMSLP

George Enescu
Violin Sonata No. 2, Op.6 (1899)

It is odd that Enescu, one of the most prominent violinists of his day, never wrote a violin concerto. The closest we have are his three violin sonatas. The Violin Sonata No. 2 does have many of the features of a concerto, though the comparison would be more apt if we considered it as a double concerto for violin and piano. This sonata not only demonstrates Enescu's mastery of the violin at age 18, but his mastery of the piano as well. His friend, the great pianist Alfred Cortot, once remarked that Enescu's piano technique was better than his own.

This Sonata in F minor would be more accurately titled 'Sonata in F gypsy-minor' because the entire work is suffused with the Hungarian minor scale. This 'exotic' scale is produced by raising the fourth and seventh degrees of a natural minor scale, creating the characteristic flavor of much Eastern European folk music in general and Romanian music in particular. The opening theme in the first movement is built from this scale and shows how raising these scale degrees forces other intervals closer together, making the tonality rather ambiguous and suggesting all sorts of chromatic excursions.

Near the end of the first movement the music comes to a calm and then halts. Suddenly the main theme begins again, but at double the original tempo and played so softly it's barely audible. This builds up in just a few bars to a fff explosion. The music stops again, then fragments of the main theme marked 'plaintif'are heard to the end of the movement. The second movement begins with a plaintive theme made from these fragments. When the piano takes over this new theme it takes on the character of a music box. Half way through the second movement, the violinist puts on a mute, dulling the color and, with soft tremolo passages, changing the atmosphere to 'misterioso'.

The final movement is a wild ride down a treacherous mountain road in a horse and carriage – and sitting beside you, the Devil himself holds the reins. The main themes from the first and second movements keep returning, transformed in various ways, some obvious, some hidden. The listener can only wonder how this music – this wild ride – can possibly stop. Let's not spoil the surprise at the end.

–– Program Notes for Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival by Stephen Soderberg (2016)