George Enescu

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Lore & Background

Enescu was born in the village of Liveni (later renamed George Enescu), the eighth child of Costache Enescu and Maria Enescu, and the only one to survive infancy. He began composing at age five, with his earliest surviving work titled Pămînt românesc. At age seven, he became the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory, studying with Joseph Hellmesberger Jr., Robert Fuchs, and Sigismund Bachrich. In 1891, he gave a private concert at the Court of Vienna for Emperor Franz Joseph, and met Johannes Brahms through his teacher Joseph Hellmesberger Sr. He graduated at age 12 with a silver medal, then studied in Paris from 1895 to 1899 at the Conservatoire de Paris with Martin Pierre Marsick, André Gedalge, Jules Massenet, and Gabriel Fauré. At age 16, he presented his first mature work, Poema Română, with the Colonne Orchestra conducted by Édouard Colonne. He later taught at the Mannes School of Music from 1948, and his students included Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras, and Ida Haendel. He married Maria Tescanu Rosetti in 1939 and was appointed to the Romanian Senate by King Carol II after the 1939 general election.

Reader's Guide

George Enescu's significance lies in his synthesis of Romanian folk music with classical forms, most famously in his two Romanian Rhapsodies (1901–02). His only opera, Œdipe (1936), is considered a masterwork. He was also a renowned violin teacher, influencing generations of players. Pablo Casals called him 'the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart' and 'one of the greatest geniuses of modern music.' Yehudi Menuhin credited him as 'the most extraordinary human being, the greatest musician and the most formative influence' he had ever experienced. Enescu promoted contemporary Romanian music, playing works of Constantin Silvestri, Mihail Jora, Ionel Perlea and Marțian Negrea. He left a substantial body of chamber and orchestral works, including five mature symphonies (two unfinished), a symphonic poem Vox maris, and much chamber music. His legacy is preserved through the George Enescu Festival, the Enescu Prize, and museums in his honor. He died on 4 May 1955 in Paris and is interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Did You Know?

• Enescu was the eighth child, but all seven of his older siblings died in infancy.
• At age seven, he became the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory, and was only the second person admitted by age dispensation (after Fritz Kreisler in 1882).
• He gave a private concert at the Court of Vienna for Emperor Franz Joseph when he was ten years old.
• Vincent d'Indy claimed that if Beethoven's works were destroyed, Enescu could reconstruct them all from memory.
• Enescu's annotated edition of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin includes his detailed indications on sonority, phrasing, tempos, musicality, fingering and expression.

Prodigy of Liveni: A Childhood Forged in Music

Born on 19 August 1881 in the village of Liveni in what was then Dorohoi County, George Enescu entered the world as the eighth child of Costache Enescu, a local landholder, and Maria, the daughter of an Orthodox priest. Tragically, every one of his seven older siblings had perished in infancy, making his survival all the more remarkable. His father eventually left the family and fathered another son, the painter Dumitru Bâșcu, but by then young George was already composing. At barely five and a quarter years old, he penned a short piece for violin and piano titled Pămînt românesc, proudly inscribed with his own name and age. His father brought him to the attention of composer Eduard Caudella, and on 5 October 1888 the seven-year-old became the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory — the second person in the institution's history to receive such an age dispensation (the first being Fritz Kreisler in 1882). Under Hellmesberger Jr., Fuchs, and Bachrich, he graduated at twelve with a silver medal. In 1891 the ten-year-old performed a private concert before Emperor Franz Joseph, and at Hellmesberger Sr.'s home he met his idol, Johannes Brahms.

A Voice Rooted in Romanian Soil

Enescu's compositional identity was inseparable from the folk traditions of his homeland. His most beloved works — the two Romanian Rhapsodies of 1901–02, the orchestral suites, and the 1936 opera Œdipe — all draw deeply on Romanian melodic and rhythmic material. Beyond these, his catalogue spans five mature symphonies (two left unfinished), the symphonic poem Vox maris, and an extraordinary body of chamber music: three sonatas for violin and piano, two for cello and piano, a piano trio, two string quartets, two piano quartets, a wind decet (French, 'dixtuor'), a string octet, a piano quintet, and a chamber symphony for twelve solo instruments. His first truly mature composition, Poema Română, was performed in Paris on 6 February 1898 by the Colonne Orchestra under Édouard Colonne, when Enescu was just sixteen. His Parisian studies from 1895 to 1899 under Marsick, Gédalge, Massenet, and Fauré sharpened his craft, and Gédalge later recalled him as 'the only one who truly had ideas and spirit.' Even in his later years, Enescu championed fellow Romanian composers such as Silvestri, Jora, Perlea, and Negrea, ensuring that his national musical heritage remained a living force.

The Teacher Behind the Masters

Few violinists of the twentieth century shaped so many careers as profoundly as Enescu did. Beginning in 1927, he guided Yehudi Menuhin for several years, and later taught at the Mannes School of Music from 1948, mentoring a remarkable group of players including Christian Ferras, Ivry Gitlis, Arthur Grumiaux, Serge Blanc, Ida Haendel, Uto Ughi, and Joan Field. Menuhin, his most celebrated pupil, spoke of Enescu as 'the absoluteness through which I judge others,' crediting him with 'the light that has guided my entire existence.' Enescu's own pedagogical philosophy was anchored in Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, which he called the 'Himalayas of violinists'; his annotated edition of those works preserves his precise thoughts on sonority, phrasing, tempo, fingering, and expression. His curiosity extended far beyond the Western canon: he rehearsed with Uday Shankar's ensemble, took the young Menuhin to hear the Indonesian Gamelan Orchestra at a Paris colonial exhibition, and developed a deep interest in Oriental music. Colleagues like Casals, d'Indy, and Cortot consistently placed him among the supreme musicians of his era — Vincent d'Indy claimed that if Beethoven's works were destroyed, they could be reconstructed from memory by Enescu.

Conductor, Statesman, and Final Years

Beyond the concert hall, Enescu built a career as a conductor and public figure that spanned continents. His American debut came on 8 January 1923, when he led the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; he would return to the United States many times, and in the 1920s was persuaded to make his first recordings as a violinist. In 1936 he was among the candidates considered to succeed Arturo Toscanini at the New York Philharmonic, and he did conduct that orchestra between 1937 and 1938. Back in Europe, he was elected a titular member of the Romanian Academy in 1932, and after the 1939 general election he was personally appointed to the Romanian Senate by King Carol II. That same year he married Maria Tescanu Rosetti, known as Princess Maruca Cantacuzino, a close friend of Queen Marie of Romania, who had written in her memoirs that 'in George Enescu was real gold.' He conducted the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris with Menuhin in 1935 and continued performing and teaching until his death on 4 May 1955. He was laid to rest in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, the city that had become his second home.