Enesco, G :: Cantabile and Presto

Cantabile and Presto

Enesco, G

International Music Company presents 'Cantabile et Presto' for flute and piano by composer Georges Enesco.

'Cantabile et Presto for flute and piano by the Rumanian composer George Enescu may make just claim to being French music. Enescu s style was largely formed in his studies with Massenet and Faure, despite the folkloristic influences of his native Rumania. Having left his homeland at seven to study the violin and piano in Vienna, Enescu went to Paris in 1894 to continue his musical education. There he took also lessons in composition. Enescu was exceptionally successful in Paris as a violinist, composer and conductor. In 1908 his Dixtuor for wind instruments inspired Jean Hure to the greatest praise. Hure went so far as to even remark that Debussy seemed to be running twenty-five years behind the composer of this music. 'Cantabile et Presto' was written as the 1904 examination piece (and was also set in 1921 and 1940) at the Conservatoire National. Enescu choose a form for this work that had not only been used by his teacher Gabriel Faure in a piece commissioned for the same purpose, but was also selected by many composers before and after him (among them Tulou, Gaubert and Casella): a slow introduction leading to a virtuoso second movement. The obvious aim of such is that the performer is given the opportunity of demonstrating the expressiveness of tone in the first movement and in the second his finger dexterity and articulation. A traditional form, its effect is enhanced by Enescu with unusual features. For instance, the Cantabile begins with an expressive melody in the flute s lowest register, an extraordinary idea in flute music of that time. Alfred Cortot, who accompanied Taffanel s flute class, was quick to point out the allure of this innovation: 'What is more moving than the low notes of the flute?' The Presto presents the interchanging of scalic and chordal double-staccato passages, cascades and flourishes and short, expressively laden phrases, thus finely demonstrating the wealth of Taffanel s new instrumental style.'

- Rien de Reede