Enescu Octet

[DracoM]

Don't think I have ever heard this - what a REVELATION!
Thx to all for publicising it.

[jayne lee wilson]

I just heard another Romanian one - Octet version from the Bucharest Virtuosi with that doyen of Enescu conductors Horia Andreescu, on 2ndhand Olympia CD, and it's another wonderful performance, with a wildly ecstatic finale...
Slightly wirier, more textured strings than Enescu-Bucharest or Moldova, but one of the most impassioned, Brahmsian or Schoenbergian-Verklartian I've heard, all in a very good sense. (I think it's a good sign if the work reminds you of the Transfigured sometimes...)...

Those big Brahms Sextets may lie before this work of course, and the Enescu finale isn't too far from Brahms' bier-keller finales e.g. Op.25 (think of the 2nd thematic group in that, against the Enescu Swinging Waltz...), 51/2 or the double concerto.... more suave, laid-back until the coda, but with that Slav-Zigeuner input...

Away with your starry invitationals, get an Old Romanian Record and see how the new Frang-led version sounds afterward....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enescu-Octet-Decet-George/dp/B0000260IJ/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=

[visualnickmos]

Enescu; I have a few of his works on CD on the Arte Nova label, and rather good, they are. Love the octet....

Also his string quartets on Naxos are wholly refreshing.

[jayne lee wilson]

Enescu; I have a few of his works on CD on the Arte Nova label, and rather good, they are. Love the octet....

Also his string quartets on Naxos are wholly refreshing.

Yes, a lovely Naxos disc - Romanian performers again... who developed under the guidance of the Voces Quartet (see above) the ensemble on the Electrecord/OLympia Chamber Music survey.

The Piano Quartets are lovelier still....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enescu-Piano-Quartets-Yvonne-Piedemonte/dp/B000027IOL/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1541213141&sr=8-7&keywords=enescu+olympia

The Olympia Enescu series is less consistently well-recorded than the Arte Nova but if anything even more recommendable for the passion, the idiomatic sound and shaping with the Voces or Andreescu... you can still find a few cheap ones too.

If you prefer greater tonal opulence (The Olympias can be a touch dry or airless sometimes) I like the Tammuz Piano Quartet on CPO ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enescu-Piano-Quartets-1-2/dp/B00475Q1SY/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1541213275&sr=1-1&keywords=enescu+tammuz

[Dave2002]

Away with your starry invitationals, get an Old Romanian Record and see how the new Frang-led version sounds afterward....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enescu-Octe...oding=UTF8&me=

That CD seems to be currently unavailable - though presumably there are copies out there - as you have a 2nd hand one yourself. eBay maybe?

Drawn a blank on eBay.

Discogs seems to point a way - at present - https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/7413609?ev=rb Maybe this one just comes and goes on different sites.

[jayne lee wilson]

That CD seems to be currently unavailable - though presumably there are copies out there - as you have a 2nd hand one yourself. eBay maybe?

Drawn a blank on eBay.

Discogs seems to point a way - at present - https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/7413609?ev=rb Maybe this one just comes and goes on different sites.

I bought mine from Amazon/Music Magpie a few days ago, got here yesterday ("VGC"...but needed a good scrub and replacement case...)... there was one left, but someone bought that after I posted #17...

This is also a top recommendation though (along with Kremer in the string-orchestral version, of which there are surprisingly few...)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enescu-Octet-Decet-George/dp/B000023ZLX/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1541225249&sr=1-1&keywords=enescu+arte+nova

...technically the best-sounding of the three Romanian recordings, and offering the most refined playing. (The Virtuosi on Olympia have more edge-of-the-seat volatility, like a live performance). Both have that lovely, keening viola sound.

Better get in there quick, then....

[gurnemanz]

I'm grateful to this thread for reminding me how little I know of Enescu and what an omission that seems to be. I have only two recordings, both acquired quite recently and "coincidentally" as part of good-value multi CD sets: The Concert Piece for Viola and Piano is on the 9CD RCA Yuri Bashmet Box and his song cycle "Sept chansons de Clément Marot" is on the Marie-Nicole Lemieux disc "L'heure exquise", which is part of the excellent 6CD Naive set "Mélodie française". Both works appeal to me and in investigating further, the Octet seems like a good place to start.

[mathias broucek]

Fantastic composer. Staggeringly underrated.

Any views on if it’s worth buying the 4th symphony? The 5th is like soaking in a glorious bath run by Ravel, Szymanowski and Scriabin but the 1st three seem more symphonic to me

[jayne lee wilson]

Fantastic composer. Staggeringly underrated.

Any views on if it’s worth buying the 4th symphony? The 5th is like soaking in a glorious bath run by Ravel, Szymanowski and Scriabin but the 1st three seem more symphonic to me

Absolutely, yes - especially if you find the compl. Bentoiu 5th as convincing as you say. Any Enescophile needs to know the 4th and 5th as they really change the eagle's-eye view of his entire oeuvre. In fact I find both more convincing symphonic structures than the first three, feeling that despite much inspiring and innovative beauty, he doesn't really find his true symphonic self till the 2nd movement of No.3.
I'm not quite sure about the very last bars in the realisation of No.4, but they are fascinatingly ambiguous, and it may simply be a feature of the performance. I wish someone else would take them on... Lintu on Ondine, surely?

(But isn't the 1st just too shamelessly an hommage à Brahms? Specifically No.2...)

You do get fine accounts of Nuages and the Chamber Symphony c/w No.4 as well, so.....

[mathias broucek]

Absolutely, yes - especially if you find the compl. Bentoiu 5th as convincing as you say. Any Enescophile needs to know the 4th and 5th as they really change the eagle's-eye view of his entire oeuvre. In fact I find both more convincing symphonic structures than the first three, feeling that despite much inspiring and innovative beauty, he doesn't really find his true symphonic self till the 2nd movement of No.3.
I'm not quite sure about the very last bars in the realisation of No.4, but they are fascinatingly ambiguous, and it may simply be a feature of the performance. I wish someone else would take them on... Lintu on Ondine, surely?

(But isn't the 1st just too shamelessly an hommage à Brahms? Specifically No.2...)

You do get fine accounts of Nuages and the Chamber Symphony c/w No.4 as well, so.....

Sounds conclusive. Qobuz, here I come!

You’ve also made me think I need to try the 1st again. I tend to listen to the 2nd, 3rd and 5th rather than the 1st. Perhaps I had subconscious reservations similar to yours?

[edashtav]

I just heard another Romanian one - Octet version from the Bucharest Virtuosi with that doyen of Enescu conductors Horia Andreescu, on 2ndhand Olympia CD, and it's another wonderful performance, with a wildly ecstatic finale...
Slightly wirier, more textured strings than Enescu-Bucharest or Moldova, but one of the most impassioned, Brahmsian or Schoenbergian-Verklartian I've heard, all in a very good sense. (I think it's a good sign if the work reminds you of the Transfigured sometimes...)...

Those big Brahms Sextets may lie before this work of course, and the Enescu finale isn't too far from Brahms' bier-keller finales e.g. Op.25 (think of the 2nd thematic group in that, against the Enescu Swinging Waltz...), 51/2 or the double concerto.... more suave, laid-back until the coda, but with that Slav-Zigeuner input...

Away with your starry invitationals, get an Old Romanian Record and see how the new Frang-led version sounds afterward....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enescu-Octe...oding=UTF8&me=

Thank goodness you pointed me in the direction of this thread, Jayne. Reading this review meant that I've recovered my memory: a little voice in my head nagged me saying, "Did you not find a copy of that Bucharest Virtuosi CD in a Bournemouth Oxfam Shop when you were nursing your mother?" Gradually, I could remember having played the Octet several times before putting it away in a pile to be studied after I returned to Buckingham.

Well, after two days of searching through my Reserve (unsorted) Stock, I've found it, and have started some a/b comparisons with the Frang to which I'll return later. For the moment I shall edit one of your sentences as , broadly, I share your sentiments:
I've just heard another Romanian one - Octet version from the Bucharest Virtuosi with that doyen of Enescu conductors Horia Andreescu, on a Charity Shop Olympia CD, and it's another really wonderful performance, with a wildly ecstatic finale...
Slightly pace Jayne, MUCH wirier, more textured / differentiated strings than Enescu-Bucharest or Moldova, but one of the most impassioned, late Brahmsian or early Schoenbergian-Verklartian I've heard, all in a very good sense. (I think it's a good sign if the work reminds you of the Transfigured sometimes...)...

[BBMmk2]

Anybody mentioned the one on Warner?