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Enescu’s Second Orchestral Suite of 1915 is broadly contemporary with the Second Symphony: the Suite was first performed in Bucharest on 27^th March 1916 with the composer conducting. The Second Orchestral Suite is a fully neo-classical work (predating Prokofiev’s "Classical" Symphony and Stravinsky’s neo-classical period by several years) but one which takes the form of a baroque orchestral suite and uses it as a framework for a "modern" work. The Ouverture is not in the "French" style but is a busy and brilliant opening. The Sarabande is a beautifully atmospheric, veiled and impressionistic movement, notable for a simple, somewhat chromatic theme which may in part have been suggested by Ravel’s Pavane. The central section is principally given to the strings and the reprise is particularly hauntingly scored. The little Gigue is rather more a pasticcio then the other movements, as light as thistledown and calling for sensitive virtuosity from the players. The Menuet Grave is slow and solemn, and is remarkable for a dramatic (and disturbing) coda. The Air continues the chromatic inflexion of earlier material in a long, winding theme that eventually turns in upon itself before a counter-exposition ushers in a refracted version, more richly scored. The image fades and a remoter, mysterious variant of the theme is unfurled, now curtailed and leading to a quiet ending. The final Bourree returns to the lively vivacity of the Ouverture and presents the opening material in Bourree style with occasional syncopation, fully worked in later symphonic fugato.

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