The Enescu Society was set up in June 2007 by the Romanian Cultural Institute with the aim of promoting to UK audiences George Enescu's outstanding but insufficiently known contribution to world music heritage.
Patron: HRH Princess Margarita of Romania President: Cristian Mandeal, conductor, Director of the George Enescu Philharmonic Executive Director: Gabriela Massaci, Director Romanian Cultural Institute London Artistic Director: Remus Azoitei, violinist & violin professor at the Royal Academy of Music Board members: Pascal Bentoiu, composer, musicologist & Enescu historian Serban Cantacuzino, architect Evan Dickerson, music writer and reviewer Christopher Eimer, historian and art critic Sherban Lupu, violinist and academic Noel Malcolm, historian, journalist and writer Andrew Popper, banker Under the auspices of the Enescu Society, The Romanian Cultural Institute aims to organize an annual concert season, offer scholarships, support the printing of Enescu music scores, books and articles about the composer.
Opening Concert of the 2008/09 Enescu Society Concert Season at the Romanian Cultural Institute
2 October 2008, 7 pm
Details about the Enescu Society at www.icr-london.co.uk/enescu To join the Enescu Society mailing list or to become a member, please write to: The Enescu Society Romanian Cultural Institute 1 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8PH director@icr-london.co.uk
We look forward to welcoming you at the next Enescu Society concert Thursday 6 November 2008 Anda Anastasescu (piano), Nicholas Carpenter (clarinet), Huw Morgan (trumpet)
Romanian Cultural Institute 1 Belgrave Square, SW1X 8PH London
Chamber Music Concert
Alexander Scherbakov (violin) Madalina Slav (piano)
In 2001 she left for the United States where she continuously performed in solo and chamber music recitals in New York and in California. In spring 2002 Madalina was accepted to the University of Southern California - Thornton School of Music as a postgraduate student of Prof. Kevin Fitz-Gerald in the “Advanced Musicianship Studies”.
Programme Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) Sonata III in E-Major, BWV 1016 (15’) I. Adagio II. Allegro III. Adagio ma non tanto IV. Allegro
George Enescu (1881 - 1955) Sonata Nr. 2 in F-Minor, op. 6 (21’) I. Assez mouvementé II. Tranquillement III. Vif
**** interval ****
(15’)
Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) Sonata in A-Major, D 574, op. 162 (22’) I. Allegro moderato II. Scherzo III. Andantino IV. Allegro vivacee
Sergey Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) Sonata Nr. 2 in D-Major, op. 94a (25’) I. Moderato II. Scherzo Presto III. Andante IV. Allegro con brio
Engagements in Romania and abroad followed shortly after graduation including concerto appearances with orchestras. Solo and chamber recitals at renowned venues and festivals: “Romanian Music” Festival “Ion Dacian” Theater, “Mihail Jora” Grand Concert Studio of Romanian Radio Society, Romanian Opera Stage, Romanian Athenaeum and many others.
Live concerts and dozens of radio and TV broadcasts made Madalina a known personality, TV Romania International – “Young Musicians”, Romanian Radio Society (a recording was added to their “Golden Record Library in 2001”), USC Classical Radio of California and Radio Romania International – “An invitation on stage”. Together with violonist Alexander Scherbakov, Madalina Slav toured her home country again in 2002 sponsored by “Swiss International Airlines” and “Helvetansa Fine Watches and Jewelry” with concerts in some of the most important venues in Romania (Timisoara Philharmonic, Cluj Philharmonic, G. Enescu National Museum and the Romanian Atheneum, Bucharest). Amongst other events, Madalina was invited to perform in the Alfred Newman Hall in Los Angeles (transmitted live on USC Classical Radio of California) and in Thousand Oaks, CA at the Fred Kavli Theatre for the Performing Arts with "Grandissimo" featuring the Grand Piano Orchestra conducted by John Kozar, Music Director &Producer. Over the spring and summer 2003 the young pianist was on tour in New Zealand, performing in Auckland, Queenstown, Taihape, Palmerston North and Wellington where she played solo and together with her husband, violinist Alexander Scherbakov. Other engagements took her across Thailand, back to Switzerland, Romania and Turkey. In 2002 she signed a performance contract with “Piano Productions, Inc.” and the Kawai Piano Corporation. Now SIAM is the exclusive representation of Piano Productions, Inc. and their Grand Piano Orchestra in Europe. Madalina Slav is living together with her husband, violinist Alexander Scherbakov in Switzerland, Zürich.
About tonight’s programme In November 2002 Alexander toured Germany and Holland with the Philharmonic of the Nations, conducted by Justus Frantz, with performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Dr. Anton Philip Hall in The Hague, in Vlissingen, Utrecht, Berlin and Wolfsburg. Amongst other works he performed the original version of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 on a rarely heard piccolo violin. Over the spring and summer 2003 the young violinist was on tour in New Zealand, performing in Auckland, Queenstown, Taihape, Palmerston. Other engagements over the summer took him to Thailand, Switzerland, Romania and Turkey. During the 2005 season Alexander Scherbakov has appeared as soloist and conductor of his own string orchestra “Cats on the Roof“. Being invited to perform in some of the most prestigious festivals throughout the year (Carinthian Summer - Austria, Bermuda Festival, Festival Internacional de Musica da Sao Caetano do Sul) the violinist has concluded 2005 with an explosive New Years concert together with the George Enescu Symphony Orchestra in the Romanian Athenaeum. Alexander Scherbakov is living in Switzerland, Zurich. He is married to the pianist Madalina Slav who is his trustworthy chamber music partner. He is appointed professor at the “Musikathelier” in Zurich and is regularly invited to give master classes in Europe and Asia.
Madalina Slav Born in Bucharest, Romania she began studying piano at the age of five with her first public appearance at the age of seven and has been actively performing ever since. Prizewinner of many competitions, amongst others: “Golden Lira Competition”, “Franz Schubert Competition”, “National Competition for Pianistic Virtuosity”, “San Bartolomeo International Competition” and “The Final National Competition Romanian Music” to mention only a few. A graduate of the “George Enescu” Music High School and the University of Music in Bucharest, where she was awarded a full, meritbased scholarship, Madalina Slav has studied with Prof. Dan Grigore. Other important pianistic impulses she received from Dana Borsan, Ilinca Dumitrescu and Konstantin Scherbakov. During her studies, Madalina was supported by The National Foundation "Henry Coanda" for extremely gifted young people.
Bach’s six surviving sonatas for violin and keyboard have been overshadowed by his magnificent works for solo violin, but they are impressive in their own right. They are thought to date from when Bach was Kapellmeister in Cöthen (1717-1723), although Bach did not acquire a keyboard capable of playing the full range of his writing until towards the end of this time. They show Bach’s respect for tradition and his desire to make innovations. The Italian sonata da chiesa form - four movements in a slow-fast-slow-fast sequence – is enlivened through imaginative use of polyphony throughout. The third sonata in E Major has long been one of the most popular in the set. The violin largely carries the opening Adagio with a noble melodic line that soars above the accompaniment. The Allegro second movement is introduced by the piano before the violin joins in cheerfully and furthers the sense of forward movement within the music. The Adagio ma non tanto is in the key of C-sharp minor and has some resemblance to a chaconne in form. Notably, the pianist’s left hand plays a slow fourbar ostinato over which the right hand and violin spin out a series of variations. The bass line, however, does not remain the same throughout: its steady 3/4 tread continues, but Bach subtly varies the har¬monies as the music progresses. The final movement in E major is full deft touches, particularly in the middle section with its use of triplet rhythms, showing Bach’s instrumental wit at its most idiomatic. Enescu’s second violin sonata marks a qualitative leap in the confidence of his writing from all of his earlier works, particularly the extremely derivative first violin sonata. Written when Enescu was seventeen in April 1899, it shows the distinct influence of Fauré’s style, yet it has its own unique character. Little surprise then that the composer thought it was with this work and the Octet, which immediately followed it, that he “became himself” as a composer. He also recounted how a theme that occurred to him one day on a walk “lived inside him” for three years before becoming the mainstay of the sonata which, when he eventually put pen to paper, was completed within a fortnight. The opening theme, first stated in unison by the violin and piano, seems to be metrically ambiguous but also poignant in its implications. This binds much of the work together as it reappears throughout the work but also gives rise to other thematic material. The first movement’s conclusion possesses vehemence almost unequalled in any other sonata. The second movement is nostalgically shaded by the character of an intimate doina, before a transition to the finale which unites the character of a Bourrée with folkloric touches, particularly in the piano part. The opening theme makes a final appearance in the key of F major. The great violinist Carl Flesch described it as “one of the most important works in the whole literature of the sonata, and one which is most unjustly and entirely neglected”.
Schubert’s violin sonata in A major was written in August 1817. The year had been devoted primarily to instrumental composition, with the piano sonatas and chamber music of that time increasing displaying the twenty year old composer’s assurance in technical matters of harmony, rhythm, melody and form. Although largely based on the classical sonata, this sonata shows a marked equality between violin and piano parts – in earlier sonatas the piano plays a less assertive role – which possibly accounts for why the publisher Diabelli erroneously titled the work a “Duo,” when it was printed in 1851. The key of A major lends the opening movement a mood of expansive pleasure and ease that reflects somewhat the joys of summer. Schubert’s sense of rhythmic capriciousness is manifest throughout but perhaps nowhere more than in the Scherzo, which appears before the Andantino, reversing the customary arrangement of inner movements to heighten the impact of the finale. Despite this formal deviation, the Trio section maintains strict classical form. The Andantino’s bittersweet tone is reinforced by chromatic semitone modulations between mediant and dominant, whose implications are exploited to great effect. The brisk finale features a theme which was later reused in a transposed form in the composer’s Cotillon in E flat. Sergei Prokofiev’s second violin sonata started life as a sonata for flute and piano. During his time in the United States Prokofiev encountered what he called the “heavenly sound” of the French virtuoso Georges Barrere, solo flautist of the New York Symphony Orchestra and teacher at The Juilliard School. Following the work’s was Moscow premiere David Oistrakh persuaded the composer to make an adaptation for violin. The D major sonata has since come to be regarded equally as the province of wind and string recitalists. Russian critic Israel Nestyev holds that, “The character of the sonata’s principal images, the quiet, gentle lyricism of the first and third movements, the capricious merriment of the second movement and the playful dance quality of the finale suit the colour of the instruments splendidly.” The theme of the opening sonata-form Andantino is almost wistful in the simplicity with which it outlines the principal tonality of the work. The second movement is a brilliantly virtuosic scherzo whose strongly contrasting trio is in rather more lyrical vein. The Andante is cast as a three-part form (A–B–A), with its central section providing formal balance to the soulful writing of the outer paragraphs. The finale is a joyous rondo based on the dancing melody given by the violin in the opening bars. Biography and programme notes: Evan Dickerson
Alexander Scherbakov Born 1982 in Moscow, Alexander started playing the violin at the age of 4. His mother a violinist and his father a concert pianist, Alexander’s playing developed very quickly. After the family moved to Switzerland in 1992, he continued his studies with Elemer Glanz. Already at the age of eleven, Alexander participated in the International Competition Citta di Stresa in Italy, where he was awarded 3rd prize. Other prizes at international competitions followed. In 1995 Alexander was accepted to the Purcell School of Music in London where he studied with Dimitar Burov. Two years later he changed to the class of Prof. D. Hahn at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Alexander also studied with Prof. Zakhar Bron, Prof. Evgueni Bushkov, Vladimir Spivakov and Gerhardt Schulz. In 1997 he was awarded a scholarship by the Max-Hussman-Foundation for exceptional talent, Zurich. 1998 he was invited to perform at the "Bregenzer Festspiele" and performed Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Later that year he was featured in a concert with the great German actress Maria Becker. Alexander Scherbakov participated at international festivals in Switzerland, Germany, England, Austria, Japan. During his performing career Alexander had the pleasure of working with conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Mandy Rodan, Sir Roger Norrington, Charles Dutoit, Simon Rattle, Wen-Pin Chien and John Williams in concerts around the world. Since September 2000, when he was awarded a full, merit-based scholarship, he studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY with Prof. Oleh Krysa (former student of David Oistrakh) and received valuable chamber music instruction from the Ying String Quartet. Alexander Scherbakov also had the honor of being the first freshman in the history of the school to lead the Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra. In spring 2002 he enrolled in the "Advanced Musicianship Studies" program at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and had the opportunity to study with the distinguished Prof. Alice Shonfeld. While in Los Angeles, Alexander performed on numerous concert stages including the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Alfred Newman Hall, Universal Studios and a for the Rotary Club of California. He was broadcast live on USC Classical Radio and recorded a number of CDs with other artists. Returning to Europe in 2002 he toured some of the prestigious venues in Romania (Timisoara Philharmonic, Cluj Philharmonic, G. Enescu Museum and the Romanian Atheneum).
Looking back on Enescu Society’s first season The first Thursday of each month, October to July, has established itself as a jour fixe in the diary of music lovers at the Romanian Cultural Institute. On evenings like this, the chamber music hall at 1 Belgrave Square, has been the host of outstanding music performances. The institute launched the Enescu Society in June 2007, in the presence of its Patron, HRH Princess Margareta of Romania, and its President, conductor Cristian Mandeal. Artistic director Remus Azoitei and pianist Eduard Stan set the performance standard extremely high with deeply moving performances of the Enescu’s "Torso" sonata and Impressions d'enfance. Since then we have welcomed emerging and established musical talents to explore Enescu’s music within the context of other composers’ works. A particular delight has been to discover minor “chippings from the master’s workbench” amongst some of his major compositions. The concert season was welcomed with interest by an increasingly numerous audience and received favourable reviews in musical journals, including regular listings in Time Out London. Some of the critical reception for our concerts: “The concert-room on the first floor of the Romanian Cultural Institute proved an ideal setting... Certainly the cello sonata deserves more exposure, and in Adrian Brendel and Nicola Eimer it finds artists that have got beneath its surface. In their new-found Enescu obsession, as Brendel termed it, the pair unearthed a Nocturne by the 16-year-old composer, which they gave as a graceful encore.” Classical Source.com “The Toccata [of the second piano sonata] announces the majestic nature of Enescu’s conception and the ferocious demands made upon the pianist, which Luiza Borac met head on. The music shows Enescu’s knowledge of form but his ability to be daringly different within its confines. Luiza’s playing drew a fine line through that delicate balance to beguile and impress.” Musical Pointers.co.uk
Artists on stage performing Enescu in our first concert season include: Adrian Brendel (cello) & Nicola Eimer (piano): Cello sonata no. 2; Sherban Lupu (violin) & Luiza Borac (piano): Violin sonatas nos. 2 and 3; Impressions d'enfance; Airs in Romanian Folk style; Mihaela Ursuleasa (piano): Pavane from Piano suite no. 2; Ensemble Raro: Aubade for string trio; Voces Quartet: String quartet no. 2 in G minor; Luiza Borac (piano): Piano suite No. 2; Romanian Rhapsody no. 1; Carillion Nocturne from Piano suite no. 3; Laura Buruiana (cello) & Eduard Stan (piano): Cello sonata in F minor (unpublished); Romanian Piano Trio: Serenade Lontaine; The Plush Ensemble: Octet for strings. At the start of our second year, we are honoured to welcome as a member of our Enescu Society board Dr Noel Malcolm, outstanding scholar and author of the most authoritative biography on Enescu: George Enescu: His Life and Music (1990, Toccata Press). The book is currently being translated into Romanian and will be launched in Bucharest at the George Enescu International Festival, in September 2009. Looking forward to more good news about Enescu and his music. Gabriela Massaci
George Enescu (1881 – 1955)
George Enescu is widely regarded as the greatest Romanian composer. The sheer range of his musical talents however threatened to overshadow his compositional achievements during his lifetime. He was a magnificent concert violinist, an insightful pianist, a conductor of depth and subtlety, not to mention being a fascinating teacher and an esteemed musicologist. He was a tireless organizer of Romanian musical life. Just some of the spectacular tasks he took on included the forming of a Philharmonic Orchestra, founding the Romanian National Opera in Bucharest and establishing the Union of Composers in Romania. Enescu was born in the village of Liveni, in northern Moldavia on 19 August 1881. A child prodigy, he wrote his first composition at the age of five. Shortly thereafter, his father presented him to the violinist and composer Eduard Caudella, who advised that Enescu should study in Vienna. At the age of seven he entered the Conservatoire there as only the second pupil ever to be admitted below the age of ten; the first was the violinist Fritz Kreisler. Enescu’s violin tutors included Joseph Hellmesberger Jr., Robert Fuchs and Sigismond Bachrich. Enescu graduated before his 13th birthday with the silver medal of the Conservatoire. In his Viennese concerts Enescu played works by Mendelssohn, Sarasate and Brahms, from whom he is supposed to have received advice on playing the composer’s violin concerto. From 1895 to 1898 Enescu continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, where his main teachers included Martin Marsick (violin), André Gédalge (counterpoint and fugue) with Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré for composition. From this period come a host of songs, works for the violin, piano, several overtures, and four ‘school’ symphonies which weigh heavy under the influences of Brahms, Wagner and Berlioz, and his opus 1, the orchestral Poème Roumain. By his own admission, Enescu’s first mature works are the 2nd Sonata for piano and violin and the Octet for strings. Enescu was not yet 18 years old when he wrote the sonata and had not reached his 19th birthday when he completed the octet in 1900. The year before Enescu had secured the first prize in the Conservatoire’s violin competition with a performance of Saint-Saëns’ third concerto. Many of Enescu's works bear the influence of Romanian folk music, though it is wholly inappropriate to colour him as just a folkloric composer. These include two Romanian Rhapsodies (1901–1902), the mighty opera Oedipe (1910-1931), the third violin sonata (1926), the third orchestral suite (1938) and the suite Impressions d’Enfance (1940) for violin and piano.
Contrasting opinions about Enescu from his contemporaries Sir Yehudi Menuhin never tired of extolling the boundless virtues of his mentor – confidently predicting that Enescu would be “one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century”. Pablo Casals held a similarly high view of Enescu, calling him “the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart". After those remarks it comes as a shock to read some press opinions about Enescu’s music. This is from the Musical Times about Oedipe in 1936: “It was all perfectly brilliant, artistically and aesthetically accomplished. The public ovated, but I felt so very lonely not being able to share its enthusiasm. Mr. Enescu has achieved the perfect balance between his vast orchestra and the vocal parts, yet neither gave anything for which you would thank him. I want music that liberates and opens mental vistas, that sings to the heart and comforts the soul. Oedipe, so far as I am concerned, left everything to be desired.” Often, but not always, it fell to musicians to recognise Enescu’s true creative worth and counter critical opinion. Aram Khatchaturian saw Oedipe as “an outstanding event in the history of opera", whilst conductor Piero Coppola held that "Oedipe is one of the most astoundingly impressive works of contemporary composition". Widespread misunderstandings still persist amongst critics who are either ill-equipped to deal with Enescu’s complex and highly personal language or do not give it the time and attention it requires. Some label him “Gallic-influenced”, even sometimes “overtly Germanic”. Most common though is a resort to “wholly Romanian”, used recently on the BBC, without attempting to articulate in detail the characteristics that flavour the music. Even Enescu’s violin playing was not totally beyond critical reproach as this 1928 review demonstrates: “Mr. Enescu’s technique fails, at first, to impress. The sound is so simply that of a singing voice that its grip is not immediate. There is nothing except the sound – well-nigh perfect bowing eliminates the musician, the violinist, the bow.” Menuhin countered this by noting the quality of sanglot – the pliancy of a truly Italianate tenor – in Enescu’s violin tone, going further to point out that Enescu had “the most expressively varied vibrato and the most wonderful trills of any violinist I have ever known.” In other performing capacities Enescu was also held in considerable respect. Alfred Cortot remarked, with more than a little pique no doubt, “Why is it that you, a violinist, have a better technique at the
piano than I do?” This point is borne out in the recordings we have of him as a pianist: full and rich chords give way to a delightfully nuanced touch. About Enescu’s conducting, his colleague Sergiu Comissiona observed: “His manner was to caress the music, not beat it. He moved his arms gently and gracefully. He truly held the orchestra like a Madonna with a child in her arms.” Menuhin naturally found Enescu “the most reassuring and inspiring” of conductors, though he related that a plan to make Enescu guest conductor of the Philadelphia orchestra floundered because chief conductor Eugene Ormandy felt threatened by the competition that a rival of Enescu’s stature would pose. Teaching formed an important part of Enescu’s later years. Some eminent violinists, including Carl Flesch, were rather dismissive of Enescu’s teaching when they heard he gave his violin classes seated at the piano. Ida Haendel, one of Enescu’s last surviving pupils, puts the situation straight when she compared the two violinists’ approaches and emphasised how, for Enescu, technique came second to understanding the music: “Firm and uncompromising, he removed all the frills which had hitherto adorned my playing of Bach … This emphasis on simplicity and purity of line served to bring out the true grandeur of the structure. Although Enescu gave precedence to the musical thought above all else, he did not neglect technical imperfections, and the slightest inaccuracy never escaped his keen ear. I found it extraordinary that after these lessons with Enescu I became even more attentive to technical precision than I had been before. This was inexplicable, as there was no doubting Flesch’s rigorousness in technical matters. Yet it seemed to me that Enescu went one degree further, for every note was of equal importance to him, even in the fastest scale, and had to be crystal-clear.” Anyone who has examined the minute markings that litter Enescu’s scores will know that the same importance and care over detail forms an integral part of his compositions.