The Gaggle Music Club: Enescu’s Violin Sonata No. 3
This week's selection for The Gaggle Music Club is George Enescu’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 25.
George Enescu (1881–1955) is considered to be Romania’s greatest composer; he was also a violinist, pianist and conductor, and wrote in almost every genre. He combined Romanian folk idioms, with German classicism (Brahmsian rigor, Wagnerian chromaticism) and French impressionism (color, atmosphere, subtle harmony).
Born in 1881 in Liveni, a village in northeastern Romania, Enescu showed musical genius extremely early; he reportedly played the violin at age four, began composing at age five, entered the Vienna Conservatory at age seven and made his debut as a violinist in Vienna at age 10. At 14, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied composition with Massenet and Fauré. In Paris, he absorbed the music of Debussy and Ravel.
In 1901, Enescu composed his Romanian Rhapsodies Nos. 1 & 2, which to this day are his most popular and most frequently-performed works. During World War I, he lived in Romania where he worked as a conductor and teacher, composing major works such as Symphony No. 3, a massive choral symphony, as well as outstanding chamber music works such as his Octet for Strings, Piano Quintet and Violin Sonatas.
During the 1920s and 30s, he lived in Paris, where he completed and premiered Oedipe--his opera and undisputed masterpiece--at the Paris Opera. He spent the World War II years in Romania, struggling with illness and financial pressures. After the war, Romania’s communist regime claimed him as a national icon, though Enescu spent his final years in Paris, in poor health but still teaching and composing. Enescu is as much an icon of Romanian classical music as Bartók is of Hungarian classical music.
Composed in 1926, Enescu’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 25, is one of the most original chamber works of the 20th century. The work reflects Enescu’s dual heritage of French modernism and Romanian/Gypsy folk idioms.
Enescu had grown up hearing Roma (gypsy) folk fiddlers in Moldavia. These professional Roma musicians were central to village life. The musicians were not ethnically Romanian but Roma (gypsy), and they were the custodians of a highly sophisticated oral tradition of music used for weddings, feasts, dances and communal events.
Subtitled “dans le caractère populaire roumain”, the sonata evokes the style, spirit and improvisational character of Romanian folk fiddlers. The sonata combines French Impressionism (Debussy, Ravel) with Hungarian/Romani fiddle style in ornamentation, rhythmic flexibility and virtuosic flair. The classical sonata form is present but it is overlaid with irregular rhythms and expressive freedom.
The first movement is brooding and improvisatory and mimics a fiddler’s playing. The second movement is a nocturnal, atmospheric meditation, evoking shepherds’ calls, night sounds and ancient ritual. The third movement is a dance-like finale, using asymmetric rhythms and intense folk energy.
Enescu’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 25, is a fusion of French impressionistic color, Romanian folk idiom and classical form, resulting in a work that is virtuosic, improvisatory and deeply expressive. The violin “sings” like a Gypsy fiddler, while the piano provides harmonic depth and texture reminiscent of Debussy’s chamber writing.
In this performance from 2018, the violinist is Alican Süner and the pianist Angela Draghicescu.
