Home | Enescu's timeline | Enescu's life in pictures | List of works

Bibliography

Enescu's Romanian Overture (or, to give it its proper title, Ouverture de Concert sur des themes dans le caractère populaire roumain), Op.32, was written in 1948. It was Enescu's first work after the War (which he spent in Romania), and was premiered in Washington DC in January 1949 with the composer conducting.

Enescu might well have called it his 'Thirh Romanian Rhapsody', but almost 50 years separate it from his Op.11, during which period Bartok and Kodaly's folk-collecting had made their influence felt. The original thematic material is laid out in full and rich orchestration, florid and assured, but with a dark side to the colouring which abjures facile optimism.

Home | Enescu's timeline | Enescu's life in pictures | List of works | Bibliography