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Enescu's works
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Orchestral suite No.3 (D major) "Villageoise" (From the country) (1938) There is a 'rustic' quality to this music that is very beguiling, a quality naturally found in greater measure in the Third orchestral Suite. This is a series of orchestral pictures, reflections of village life and depicting, now in orchestral guise, aspects of the Violin Sonata No.3, Op.25. The suite's first movement, Nature Awakening in Spring, opens with a wonderfully descriptive paragraph orchestral of painting, its 'open-air' atmosphere not unlike aspects of the work of Carl Nielsen in the use of long pedal points and lyrical, winding woodwind solos above sometimes dislocating harmonies. Notable also is the integration of the piano within the full orchestral texture. Children at play is delightfully brilliant, constantly-syncopated flexible music in 6/8, a stunningly original scherzo (the use of the piano being again notable) full of magnificent woodwind writing. Next follows what is, in effect, a symphonic poem, the various episodes of which are cogently described in the titles appended to the movement. But this music is also a closely-argued development of a long, typically Enescu-like theme. After a lengthy exposition, a textural disintegration unfolds a new vista as the theme meanders across the vast panorama; a new sound brings the image forward as the long last section is set in train: the distant bells sound as the theme traverses the bass regions. The Moonlight stream is a fully impressionistic intermezzo, redolent with shimmering orchestral hues and rich instrumental colour, ending with soft cymbal strokes. Finally, a folk-like set of dances which begins quietly and gradually becomes ever more florid, if not hectic, as the villagers celebrate in suitable style. |
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