GEORGE ENESCO, born Liveni, Roumania, 1881, died

Paris, France, 1955

'“In the world of music” — Enesco said — ‘‘I am five

in one: composer, conductor, violinist, pianist and

teacher. I prize most the gift of composition and no

mortal can possess a greater happiness ...”

Indeed, Enesco was, perhaps, the most com-

prehensive and multilateral contemporary musician.

As a performing artist he was great among the greats,

but his composing side is the most revelatory of his

complex personality, and certainly his most enduring

legacy.

The index of his works lists only 33 opus numbers.

They were all born from the desire to communicate a

thought or an emotion and were crafted with love and

most meticulous care. To the last, in the Chamber

Symphony for Twelve Solo Instruments (composed on

his death-bed to which he was nailed for the last year of

his life by a merciless disease) he wanted his exact in-

tentions communicated to the performers through in-

dications of dynamics, accents, phrasing, bowing,

pedalling etc. added to virtually every note in the score.

Enesco was not preoccupied with the creation of a

personal style. ‘‘Do not try a new language,” he would

say to students, ‘‘but try in your own language to ex-

press exactly that which you feel. Originality is obtained

by those who do not search for it.” Without searching

for individuality at all costs, Enesco succeeded in im-

pressing even on his first works a personal touch

derived precisely from the strength of his feeling and

the sincerity with which he expressed it.

The Suite No. 2 in D Major appeared in 1903 as an

extension of the neo-classic element brought forth the

same year in his Suite No. 1 for Orchestra. It was com-

posed on the occasion of the international contest for

composition organized by the magazine “Musica” of

Paris. On the jury were Debussy, Dukas, Massenet,

Gedalge, Cortot, D’Indy, Pierne and others. The Suite

was appreciated by Massenet as having “the most ar-

tistic taste and sensitivity,” and was accorded 1st prize

among the suites for piano.

The early influences in the formation of Enesco’s

musical ethos — Wagner, Ravel, Debussy — are felt

like a light breeze throughout this work: the first in the

complex chromaticism of the Toccata; the second in

the refined elegance of the form of the Sarabande,

which bears the indication “Noblement” and of the

Pavane; the latter through the contrasting sonorities

and the underlying contrapunted rhythms of the

Bourree. The entire piece is imbued with that spirit

which attests to the correctness of Enescu’s belief that

he was “an incorrigible lyric.”

Of the Roumanian Rhapsody in A Major for

Orchestra written in 1901, the composer’s words are

worth noting: “I consider folk melodies perfect in them-

selves. To use them in a symphonic work is equivalent

to weakening and diluting them. I see only one excep-

tion: using folklore in Rhapsodies where popular

melodies are juxtaposed, not reworked. They can be

amplified one way only: by dynamic progression or

repetition, without changes, additions or fillers.”

This Roumanian Rhapsody is in the universal

musical literature a prime example of genial intuition

into the most fundamental and pervasive characteristic

of a people’s nature. The pastoral imagery, wistfulness,

nobility, vibrant lyricism and explosive happiness found

in this piece are the most direct depiction of the

Roumanian peasant’s view of life.

The piano version was written by the composer in

1949.

The Prelude and Fugue dates from September 11,

1903. It has no opus number and is not mentioned in

the major sources of information about Enesco.

Notes by Julien Musafia

Dolby is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories Inc.

JULIEN MUSAFIA was born in Bucharest,

Roumania, started piano study at the age of 4 and

made his debut under sponsorship of the newspaper

‘Dimineata” at the age of 61/2 when he played Bee-

thoven's Sonata op. 49 in G Major. Upon graduation

from the Royal Academy of Music (Muza Germani-

Ciomac, piano, Mihail Jora, harmony-counterpoint) he

was accorded the “Paul Ciuntu" Prize, the same award

given Dinu Lipatti several years earlier. He studied

further with Florica Musicescu in Bucharest, with Isabel

Vengerova in New York and with Jakob Gimpel in

Hollywood. He has concertized on 3 continents and

recorded for MGM and Columbia Pictures in

Hollywood, and for the National Iranian Radio-

Television in Teheran.

As a devotee of the music of Shostakovich he has

publicly performed all his solo piano and chamber

works, and conducted several of his orchestral works.

In 1969 he gave the American premiere of the complete

24 Preludes and Fugues, op. 87, and gave in New

York’s Carnegie Hall the permiere of Op. 127 in the

company of Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina

Vishnevskaya.

In 1972 he published a new edition of the 24

Preludes and Fugues with the collaboration of the com-

poser. Another publication, THE ART OF FINGERING

IN PIANO PLAYING, (MCA, 1971) is the first com-

prehensive book published on the subject.

In the years 1944-46 Musafia attended many of

Enesco’s concerts and rehearsals, including his famed

series with Yehudi Menuhin, and also the tour-de-force

during his last year in Roumania of weekly solo recitals,

solos with orchestra, chamber music and concerts con-

ducting the Bucharest Philharmonic.

Musafia is professor or advanced performance in

piano at California State University, Long Beach.

Liorary of Congress Catalog Card No. 76-750772

(Suite, Prelude & Fugue): 76-750773 (Rhapsody).

Recording/Editing: Giveon Cornfield

Production: Marion Cornfield