Discoveries.

[Sir Velo]

Have you discovered Enescu's Dixtuor, SirV?

Yes, lovely work.

I have it coupled with the Mladi of Janacek somewhere.

Going through a bit of an Enescu phase at the moment. Currently astonished by the Poeme Roumain, another of those opus 1s which announce its perpetrator as one of that breed of fully fledged composers from their first utterance.

[Pulcinella]

Yes, lovely work.

I have it coupled with the Mladi of Janacek somewhere.

Going through a bit of an Enescu phase at the moment. Currently astonished by the Poeme Roumain, another of those opus 1s which announce its perpetrator as one of that breed of fully fledged composers from their first utterance.

Probably on this Naxos CD (possibly filed under Dvorak, where mine is?).

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Naxos/8554173

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, lovely work.

I have it coupled with the Mladi of Janacek somewhere.

Going through a bit of an Enescu phase at the moment. Currently astonished by the Poeme Roumain, another of those opus 1s which announce its perpetrator as one of that breed of fully fledged composers from their first utterance.

Have you got around to Pascal Bentoiu's performing versions of the Enescu 4th and 5th Symphonies by Peter Ruzicka on CPO yet? I often return to them, some of the most fascinating orchestral releases of the last few years.... they really change your view of the composer, as someone always questing on, trying to do something new...

But yes, I'm another fan of that wonderful Octet - the finale build-up and pay-off is marvellous. Yet it's still hard to find really ideal recordings - despite the ASMF, the Kremerata Baltica and others, my favourite is still the Mandeal/Budapest one of the original Octet (much preferred here to the string-orchestral version...), with the Avi/RWE live one with 8 "celebrity" performers pretty close, and in much better sound...

[Ferretfancy]

Ye shall know them by their fruits

Tapiola fans, how about Beecham? ( Stereo version) Koussevitsky's Sibelius 7 is a must as well, I can still remember where the side changes came on the original Sibelius Society set.

[Sir Velo]

Have you got around to Pascal Bentoiu's performing versions of the Enescu 4th and 5th Symphonies by Peter Ruzicka on CPO yet? I often return to them, some of the most fascinating orchestral releases of the last few years.... they really change your view of the composer, as someone always questing on, trying to do something new...

Still getting to grips with the first three, Jayne! Aren't "four" and "five" slightly dubious in their authenticity? A bit like Ives' Universe symphony, I get the feeling, though that may be unfair.

I'm currently auditioning the piano trio which lay unperformed for 30 years and clearly has had much editorial interference. It's said of the "three" piano sonatas op.31 that number two was never committed to paper as Enescu carried it around in his head but could never get round to writing it down!

[jayne lee wilson]

According to the excellent CPO notes, the 4th and 5th Enescu Symphonies were both left complete in short score - i.e. as 4-stave sketches, with "all the markings pertaining to dynamics phrasing and articulation". In the 4th, Enescu orchestrated the 1st movement and the opening of the 2nd; in the 5th he completed the orchestration of about 2/3 of the first movement. In other words, the situation he left is remarkably close to that of Mahler's 10th, and having lived with both these recordings for a few years now, I can only say that Pascal Bentoiu's versions ( a composer himself and an authority on Enescu) are probably even more convincing than the Cooke Mahler 10, in the sense that they maintain the sound Enescu creates early on in the scores marvellously well, and feel more idiomatically and orchestrally "finished" than even that wonderful creation.

I'm reminded of Cooke's comment on the 10th that "the leading thematic line throughout, and something like ninety-percent of the counterpoint and harmony, are pure Mahler, and vintage Mahler at that".
So it goes with the Enescu 4th and 5th. They date from 1935 and 1941, so either side of the wonderful 3rd Suite (1938), and show a similar, startlingly original vision and sharper structural focus than in the Symphonies 2 and 3. The 4th's finale has one of the most extraordinary articulate-yet-ambiguous codas you could ever hear - you really do feel that only Enescu could have written it.

I should add that these buried symphonic treasures are outstandingly well played and recorded!

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/search?q=enescu+cpo&i=boutique

[DublinJimbo]

I should add that these buried symphonic treasures are outstandingly well played and recorded!

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/search?q=...cpo&i=boutique

Thanks Jayne for that neat search trick. I didn't know I could combine composer and label like that. Very handy!