Ravel: Tzigane
Enescu: Caprice Roumain for Violin &
Orchestra
It says a lot about the re-evaluation and wider availability of
George Enescu’s music that several musicians have turned to works that were
left incomplete in preference to the ‘core’ repertoire of the sonatas, suites
or symphonies. Think of Peter Ruzicka’s successful accounts of the Fourth and
Fifth symphonies on cpo or Luiza Borac’s live recording of the Piano Concerto movement
on Hanssler. Ruzicka and Borac have also recently joined forces to record
Enescu’s Phantasie for piano and orchestra. This cpo release will be
paired with another work from 1896, the incomplete Violin Concerto in A minor,
featuring Carolin Widmann as the soloist.
The Caprice Roumain, completed by Cornel Ţăranu, is perhaps the closest thing to a full violin concerto by Enescu that exists. The recording issued by La Dolce Volta, live from 2015, is not violinist David Grimal’s first foray on disc with Enescu’s music. He made a decent recording of the third sonata for piano and violin with George Pludermacher (Ambroisie label, 2008). No doubt David Grimal and Les Dissonances have sought to release the recording now to coincide with their performance of the Caprice Roumain later this month at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest.
The booklet interview with David Grimal succinctly identifies several aspects of Enescu’s musical personality: the mix of influences (French and Romanian folk idioms) upon his compositional style – this, though, oversimplifies things as Enescu was a much more complex figure. Grimal also pinpoints the fact that detail and atmosphere need to be effectively balanced in any performance of Enescu’s music. So, what about the performance itself?
On the whole, Grimal makes a convincing case for the Caprice Roumain. His playing of the solo violin part is clean and committed, without resorting to a distracting metallic tone even in the highest reaches of the register. Les Dissonances plays with atmosphere, aided by the slightly resonant recording. Individual instrumental lines and textures such as cor anglais, oboe, horns and the piano penetrate through the string-dominant orchestration at telling moments. The only competitor on disc (also on Youtube) is the rarely available performance on the Romanian Electrecord label from Sherban Lupu, violin with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra under Cristian Mandeal’s baton. The recording is a touch dryer and the orchestral winds are more characterful. Lupu’s solo tone is fuller than Grimal’s – something I slightly missed on repeated listening. Mandeal drives the orchestra forward: his Tempo di Hora second movement leaps into life, whereas the slower tempo adopted by Les Dissonances is just a touch reticent. Perhaps that’s the key difference from performers who have spent years performing a wider Enescuvian repertoire.
Cristian Mandeal once told me he found the Caprice Roumain, “Interesting, but not entirely Enescu”. Listening to the new recording, I am aware of the orchestration’s rather one-dimensional character, with close string textures used throughout. Perhaps if Enescu had completed the orchestration a wider palette of orchestral colours might be in evidence. Anyone new to Enescu’s orchestral writing would do well to investigate the three mature symphonies, the suites or the opera Oedipe for a truer indication of Enescu’s gifts as an orchestrator.
La Dolce Volta preface Enescu’s Caprice Roumain with Chausson’s Poème and Ravel’s Tzigane. Both are works that Enescu played as a violinist and they illustrate the Gallic context that he absorbed on a daily basis, given that for much of his life he lived in Paris.
The recordings, from 2021, are studio-based rather than taken from concerts. Together, they face stiff competition as both works are widely available. Grimal and Les Dissonances sound fully at home with both works with performances that seduce the ear. The playing of soloist and ensemble has a lithe and subtle quality about it which suits both works. There are bigger boned performances of the Chausson and more overtly ‘folksy’ recordings of Ravel’ Tzigane available. To Grimal’s credit, he resists uncalled-for fussy fingerings or vibrato that muddies the tone, to the detriment of the melodic lines.
All said, this CD brings together the familiar
with the all-but-unheard in engaging performances that are well recorded and
presented. Despite a relatively short playing time of 53 minutes, this release is well worth investigating.
4 Stars – release date: 10 September 2021. Reviewed from a promotional download.
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