Enescu: Symphony 4

 

The best news regarding this recording of Enescu's Fourth Symphony is its vivid, clear, upfront orchestral sonics. Having recently heard Gennady Rozhdestvensky lead the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Enescu's main three symphonies in tubby Chandos sonics and in a grand, broad style (BLOG), greatly turned me off of most those works.

But Symphony no. 4 in E minor is more concise, coming in at a mere 35 minutes compared to the 60-minute works of the Second and Third Symphonies. I really enjoy the central movement, where Enescu creates a characterful soundworld, interpolating chamber textures with the full orchestra, all set in a quasi march complete with instrument slidings. I don't mind that this symphony runs without pause either, for Enescu paints such lovely colors and offers plenty of variety so as to drag this listener along with him successfully.

Still, I don't think Enescu is particularly successful at creating memorable motivic ideas, preferring instead to move from one idea to the next willy-nilly. It is this aspect where the overall timing works better for me, not leaving me swimming to find something to latch on to before I drown in a sea of late-Romanticisms.

The shorter tone poem Autumn Clouds over the Forest is also quite nice. As opposed to the liner notes author, which on CPO is usually hindered by eccentric translations, I don't find anything particularly sinister or melancholy. Instead, the opening noodlings are highly chromatic, in an affable manner. When the orchestra makes its way to the climax, I hear nothing but heroism and radiance, with a lovely journey reaching that point.

I am not as keen on Enescu's Chamber Symphony. Written for 12 instruments, I am reminded of the spare textures of Stravinsky, with a higher degree of dissonance to contend with. Luckily, Enescu still imbues his own brand of Romanticism still, just with a tendency towards modernist motions.

Such lovely musings are heard immediately upon the start of the work, but meander little by little into harsher harmonic ideas. I do like the presence of a concert piano in the orchestration, a nice bit of texture for the chamber ensemble.

Well, if only Peter Ruzicka and his Hannover band had covered the first three symphonies from Enescu, I might have a higher opinion of them. As it stands for now, those works will have to wait for me to cover another set to firm up my judgement. Here, I am much more taken with the music, with only the Chamber Symphony not doing much for me musically.

 

 

 

Works
Symphony 4 in E minor (35.36)
Nuages d'Automne sur les Forêts (8.30)
Chamber Symphony, op. 33 (18.03)

Performers
NDR Philharmonic Orchestra, Hannover
Peter Ruzicka, conductor

Label: CPO
Year: 2015
Total Timing: 62.32

This recording was good enough to make me want to go back and retry Enescu's first three symphonies, ones I wrote off due to a subpar Chandos set.

No such problems here, although I am not overly taken with Enescu's final Chamber Symphony.

Find more Enescu recordings HERE!