Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Ion Marin (conductor)
22 April 2020; Lighthouse, Poole
Concert cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic
GEORGE ENESCU: Symphony No. 1 in E flat major
Born 19 August 1881 Liveni, Romania Died 4 May 1955 Paris, France
1. 2. 3.
Assez vif et rythmé Lent Vif et vigoureux
The great Romanian composer George Enescu completed his first symphony in 1905, whilst simultaneously establishing a reputation as one of the twentieth-century’s greatest virtuoso violinists. This was not his first attempt at the symphonic genre. While studying at the Paris Conservatoire between 1895 and 1898, he completed four ‘school’ symphonies, though it seems these works were never really intended for widespread public performance. Each of them is tinged with an unmistakable Brahmsian inference, which is not too surprising since Enescu had met Brahms and played violin in a student orchestra under the Hamburg master’s baton whilst a student at the Vienna Conservatoire. The key signature for his first mature symphony, E flat major, drew widespread comparisons with Beethoven’s third, Schumann’s third, or Bruckner’s fourth, to name but three. However, maybe Enescu had vanquished any ghosts associated with that key signature since it was also used for the fourth ‘school’ symphony. The first symphony is dedicated to the Italian pianist and composer Alfredo Casella, a fellow pupil of composer Gabriel Fauré at the Paris Conservatoire. It was premiered by the conductor Eduard Colonne and his orchestra in Paris on 21st January 1906, alongside a performance of Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique. Enescu later commented that it produced in him the strongest emotional response as a composer, alongside the orchestral Poème roumain and his opera Oedipe. The symphony met with universal public acclaim; it remains his most performed orchestral score after the two Romanian Rhapsodies. However, Enescu grew to dislike the Rhapsodies, not only because of their popularity, but because they did not truly represent him as a composer. The enduring appeal of the first symphony undoubtedly results from its rich vein of tonal Romanticism. Unmistakably heroic in its fervour, this permeates the symphony from start to finish. There are conflicting views about the influences that hold sway over the symphony. Several writers claim the influence of German composers including Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. Enescu’s early orchestral works frequently show these influences but when considering this symphony perhaps it over-simplifies things. Some authorities, such as the Romanian composer Pascal Bentoiu, cite French influences including Berlioz, Ernest Chausson and the Belgian, Cézar Franck. The writer Noel Malcolm, in his discussion of the work, agrees with Bentoiu that French influences dominate. However, his preference is for Paul Dukas’ Symphony in C from 1895/6 or the orchestration of Vincent d’Indy’s opera Fervaal, completed a decade before Enescu finished his symphony. In truth though, it can safely be said that if indeed Enescu had absorbed their multifarious ideas, he then distilled them into his own uniquely cogent opus. Much as Franck had done in his Symphony in D minor, Enescu balances a Germanic sense of structure with a French tonal palette. Also like Franck, he disposed of the Scherzo movement and wrote a three-movement symphony. The first movement, with its marking Lively enough and rhythmical, grabs the listener with a confident and uplifting first theme, first stated by the brass which contrasts with a more lyrical second theme. The two are developed within an intricately constructed sonata form that contains a dramatic central section. Within this
development, the dramatic tension is progressively ratcheted up with a masterful sense of pacing. Throughout, Enescu takes pains to explore the harmonic possibilities of the themes in his polyphonic writing and utilises orchestral colours and textures with a deft touch: witness his use of the triangle, cymbal and bass drum, for example. Growing from the trombones and lower orchestral reaches, the movement’s initial theme recurs once more. The movement’s conclusion is a coda of great intensity. The slow central movement is akin to a nocturne inspired by Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. A restrained introductory section becomes more stirring; a motif played repeatedly, almost obsessively and fatalistically by the French horn is answered by the orchestra. From this, the first theme emerges in the strings. A second theme, again given by the horns, is contrasted and developed at length with contrapuntal skill. Whilst it maintains a mood of dark restraint, its various strands rise and intertwine before fading with a quasi-nostalgic glance back to the horn motif with which it began. The third movement, with the tempo indication Lively and vigorous, is as the marking suggests, initially spirited in the strings, above which the melodic material is prominently constructed through a series of episodes. The movement is a compactly constructed sonata form structure, yet its two thematic ideas never lose their sense of inner momentum and passion. As the movement proceeds, links to the symphony’s opening movement can be discerned through reminders of the orchestral colours employed, lending the symphony a certain sense of closure and inevitability. In its final pages, Enescu slows the tempo and in a full grandiose recapitulation, trumpet fanfares shine forth.
At that time 1905: In St Petersburg, Russia, a large demonstration of workers led by Father Georgy Gapon, marched to the Winter Palace with a petition to the Tsar for representation of the people. Troops fired on the protesters in what became known as Bloody Sunday. That same year, the Russian battleship "Potemkin" sailed into Odessa, where sailors took the bodies of dead crewman ashore; sailors joined civilians in the revolutionary actions of the 1905 Revolution. With the "October Manifesto" Tsar Nicholas II granted civil liberties and accepted the first Duma (Parliament). Albert Einstein introduced the equation E=mc² in his paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?”. Arthur Conan Doyle published "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" collection in London following public pressure to revive his famous detective. Claude Debussy's symphonic sketch La Mer premiered in Paris. In the same city, Mata Hari first performed her dance act at the Musée Guimet. Arnold Schoenberg's Pelleas und Melissande premiered in Vienna. The world's largest diamond, the 3,106-carat Cullinan, was found in South Africa. Programme note © Evan Dickerson 2020