The debut recording from pianist Daria Parkhomenko, a Russian of Romanian origin, features three major works by George Enescu. To celebrate its release on the Prospero Classical label, I discuss her love of Enescu's music in an interview below.
[Image credit: Michael Reinicke]
ED: How did you first encounter George Enescu’s music? How long have you been playing Enescu’s music for?
DP: As a performer, I began to learn the music of George Enescu 4 years ago, in 2018. I took part at the George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest and obligatory piece in the semifinal was one of his piano works. At that time I knew quite a lot of his symphonic music, chamber music, violin sonatas, but his piano works were unknown to me. I chose the second suite for the semifinal, and I really fell in love with this music.
After the competition, I was motivated to learn more his piano works. After the Second Suite I started to learn the first piano sonata, which would later become my favorite, and later, I was interested to learn more, and I opened the scores of the Third piano sonata, which I learned quite quickly, as I had a lot of time during the pandemic.
The inexhaustibility of Enescu's fantasy in his music is amazing and makes his music special and captivates every listener, and this inspired me to record my first album with three piano works by him.
ED: Your debut recording includes three major piano pieces by Enescu – the two sonatas and the second piano suite. How important are these pieces for you as a pianist?
DP: As I like very much 20th century music in general, I was interested to learn new music from this time for my concert programmes. And despite the fact that pianists have an extremely large repertoire, I am very happy to learn new piano works, especially if they are little known to listeners, and present it to the audience.
For me, as for musician, a new piano piece is like a new book. It is always an occasion to discover something new in music and in yourself. Definitely through this music it helped me develop as a musician in many ways, I developed as an artist, discovering and playing his music. As I have Romanian roots, Enescu’s music has a very special connection to me. I am very happy that I have discovered this gorgeous music, and feel that I have learned more about Romanian culture and I understood myself deeper as a Romanian.
ED: How did you approach recording the works? What specific interpretive points did you want to make about them?
DP: It is surprising that there are not so many recordings of these works, and at the very beginning of studying the text and understanding the concept of this music, it was not so easy for me. In many aspects, his music is complex in structure and I want to note that he wrote his notes in scores in great detail regarding tempos, dynamics, colors. In general, it is unusually curious to learn music with a clean slate, it inspires much more to create your own interpretation.
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ED: Enescu lived as an international musician - in Romania, in Paris and he toured extensively. At heart, though, he was Romanian. What Romanian influences do you find in his piano writing?
DP: Enescu was a giant musician, and he composed music that was different both emotionally and stylistically, the inspiration for which was the music of Brahms, the music of french impressionists, and of course the Romanian folk music.
The folk art of his homeland was primarily an inspiration for his works. Therefore, in each of his works, in addition to the influence of classical and romantic traditions, the influence of folk songs and dances can be felt. For example, the First piano sonata is an example of his unique compositional style. I find especially thrilling the mixture of Romanian folklore and turn of the century French Impressionism. In my opinion, both the piano sonatas, for their musical language and technical means, are among the most difficult of Enescu's pieces for piano.
ED: Enescu’s music often presents many challenges to a performer. What challenges did you find in these works?
DP: His music is extremely rich in different types of effects and diverse emotions through musical gestures and diverse dynamics. I feel this interesting combination fits quite well and his music is very close to my heart.
Most important was for me to show the variety of his compositional effects, which Enescu heard in many ways as a violinist. And for performer this is a very interesting creative process, that comes a lot from imagining and hearing these effects rather than technical abilities. I would like to acquaint and involve as many listeners as possible with the piano repertoire of Enescu.
ED: I know you often play Enescu’s piano works within your recital programmes. What do you find the audience reaction is to them?
DP: After winning the Enescu competition, I combined various programs for my recitals, included piano and chamber works by Enescu, and I am very pleased that many listeners listened to this wonderful music with great interest, as did I myself.
I remember my first performance of the 1 piano sonata in Hamburg, which I learned for my master exam, and I did not expect to get so many positive reviews about only this sonata, and it’s motivated me a lot. It often happens that if a piece of work is little known to the listener, he is not always able to fully understand the music and perceive it. Enescu's music is largely ambiguous. And as a performer, it is interesting and very valuable for me to hear the understanding of the meaning of this music from different people, that is, how they hear this music and how they perceive it.
ED: Enescu wrote a great deal of other music for the piano, are any of those in your repertoire? Do you plan to play or record other pieces by Enescu in the future?
DP: I also performed the third violin sonata, arranged for classical saxophone, which is very unusual, and I managed to perform this year in concert, it was very interesting and exciting experience. And of course, I would like to learn many other works of Enescu, both for piano and chamber music and arrangements.
Enescu was a brilliant musician and a great teacher. He had an incredible aura that captivated audiences. The passion, the colourfulness and the melancholy of his music makes this music very attractive to the listener. I am very happy to recommend all pianists in the world to familiarize themselves with the piano works of George Enescu. And I believe that people will inspired by this wonderful music as much as I am!
ED: Thank you very much, Daria. I wish you all the best for your recording, future career and further discovery of Enescu's music.
