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CD REVIEWS | Two New Enescu Discoveries: Axel Strauss/Ilya Poletaev (Naxos) & Hannu Lintu/Truls Mørk (Ondine)

By Paul E. Robinson on May 11, 2015

Enescu

Enescu: Complete Works for Violin and Piano, Volume 2. Axel Strauss, Violin. Ilya Poletaev, piano. Naxos 8.572692 (Total Time: 67:01)

George Enescu (1881-1955) is little-known today, except for his brilliant Romanian Rhapsodies. In his time, however, he burst on the scene as a child prodigy, graduating from the Vienna Conservatory at the age of 13. Although he played piano, violin and cello at a very high level, he ultimately concentrated on the violin and became one of the most celebrated soloists of his generation. He was also a prodigious composer – a student of Massenet and Fauré – and at the age of 16, presented a concert in Paris devoted entirely to his own compositions.

Although Enescu never received the adulation he deserved for his music during his lifetime, in recent years his music is being “rediscovered”, as it were, and these two new recordings should help to move along the Enescu revival.

Performers Axel Strauss and Ilya Poletaev are both members of the faculty at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University; this is the second of their two CDs devoted to Enescu’s complete works for violin and piano.

The Violin Sonata No. 1, written when the composer was only 16 years old, is a very attractive piece, especially the gorgeous slow movement. This is followed by five short pieces, each one of which would make an attractive encore, especially the very beautiful Ballade Op. 4a. The CD concludes with a much later work, Impressions d’enfance Op. 28 (Impressions of Childhood), which is probably the most original work on the album. Each movement in this 23-minute suite has a charm of its own. One movement actually features birdsong played mostly by the violin; the effect is delightful, presaging the kind of thing that Messiaen was to do years later. I would encourage violinists looking for offbeat repertoire to take a look at this terrific work.

Strauss and Poletaev have a deep understanding of Enescu’s music; unfortunately, the recording favours the piano and makes the violin sound recessed and lacking in body.

****

Enescu-Lintu2

Enescu: Symphony No. 1 Op. 13. Symphonie Concertante Op. 8. Truls Mørk, cello. Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra/Hannu Lintu. Ondine ODE 1198-2 (Total Time: 54:04)

Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra have been working their way through all the Enescu symphonies for Ondine. In this latest release, they tackle the Symphony No. 1, dating from 1904 when the composer was 24. This piece is full of the exuberance of youth, which is mastered remarkably by the orchestra.

The work opens with a fff statement of the main theme by four horns and four trumpets and the volume rarely lets up until the end of the movement. The slow movement is very different, with lyrical music of uncommon beauty. The finale returns to the free-wheeling abandon of the first movement. It’s an impressive work and should be heard more often. That said, Ondine, in this recording, has given the performers very poor audio reproduction. The orchestra sounds as if it is behind a curtain of cotton wool. If you want to hear the details in this exceptional score, try the recording by Rozhdestvensky and the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos 9507).

The Symphonie Concertante Op. 8 – actually a cello concerto – is also an early work, and a very fine one. I have long admired Truls Mørk’s unique tone and he is at his best here. An excellent performance.

Hannu Lintu is chief conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony and his career seems to be going really well. Why then does he look so angry? On the cover of this CD, Lintu seems about to burst a blood vessel. He is also featured on the cover of the first two volumes of this Enescu series, in much the same pose, looking straight into the camera, seriously unsmiling.

Winters in Finland must be even worse than we thought.

#LUDWIGVAN

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