Enescu, George

Enescu, George – Symphony No. 2 Op. 17

(b. Liveni Vîrnav , Romania, 19. August 1881 – d. Paris, 4. Mai 1955)

(1912-1914)

Vivace, ma non troppo p.3
Andante giusto p.136
Un poco lento, marziale p.186
Allegro vivace, marziale p.211

Preface
The Romanian composer George Enescu was the only surviving child of his parents, who had lost several children as stillbirths or through illness. His father, Costache Enescu, worked as an administrator for a local landowner. A man of great energy and ability he had taught himself French and Latin, played the violin and conducted a choir. His mother, Maria née Cosmovici, the daughter of an Orthodox priest, played the guitar and the piano. As a musical prodigy son George had learned the violin and composed from an early age. At the age of 7, he was admitted to the Vienna Conservatoire, where he studied as the youngest student they had ever accepted. Subsequently he went to the Paris Conservatoire and made a musical career, primarily as a violinist, though he also conducted and worked as a pianist. As a much sought after teacher he taught many of the great violinists of the next generation. It is said that he could play on the piano any passage from the sonatas, symphonies and quartets of Beethoven from memory. Enescu admired both Brahms and Wagner and saw no contradiction in doing so. In 1939 he married Maruca Cantacuzino, Romanian aristocrat and lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie of Romania. After the Second World War and the Communist takeover of Romania, Enescu settled in Paris, where he died in 1955. …

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