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Enescu’s Second Symphony was first performed in Bucharest on 28^th March 1915, conducted by the composer. It is his biggest symphony, playing for almost 50 minutes, and - like his mature symphonies - is in three movements. It opens with a wide-ranging theme in A major, with a texture not unlike that which begins Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony. The energy soon gives way to a lyrical group of shorter themes, all derived in some form from the first arching theme. This is a concentrated exposition before the second main subject group, lyrical and energic, unfurls; the use of distant tonalities - such as E flat - creates a vast sense of space as the music muses over aspects from both groups in an important passage of haunting originality. The music is now tonally more fluid yet retains its essential triple pulse; it gradually gathers strength for a powerful passage in which earlier elements are magnificently combined before an uncertain coda ends the massive exposition. The development as such - for Enescu constantly developed his material during the extensive exposition - flows freely from this uncertainty: the music moves upwards before a tightening of texture and rhythm impressively builds to a new climax, at the summit of which the first subject breaks free to bring the recapitulation, more poignant than before, but also more relaxed as it searches for - and at last reaches - its goal. A passionate, lyrical and richly-scored coda, fading at the last, ends the movement in A minor.

The slow movement faces the uncertainties of the first in a mixture of tonalities: B flat major and minor and G sharp; each a semitone from A. The note A is thus squeezed from the music, which appears to search for that which it cannot have. The beautiful orchestrations at times breath-talking in its command and richness - here is a true orchestral master - and the passion Enescu creates is both deeply-felt and utterly original.

The finale opens in the remote key of E flat, slowly, mysteriously, in martial vein. A descending phrase which reappeared in Enescu’s later masterpiece, the opera Oedipe, acts a motif of Fate. A unison tutti causes this motif to disappear and the main symphonic Allegro ensues, yet in its long and heroic journey towards a brilliantly restored and vital A major the music encounters sudden reappearance’s of the Fate motif before strands of the symphony’s opening themes an the haunting passage from the first movement are rediscovered in a trilling coda which engulfs all.

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