MOZARTISH?

George Enescu: Gentle Giant (Martin Anderson, July 2003, Crisis)

“Enescu was the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart.” Thus said Pablo Casals, no mean musician himself. Stokowski agreed: “I have known very many great musicians, and very few geniuses. Enescu was a genius.” Yehudi Menuhin, Enescu’s student from 1927, confessed, “Every time I play music, I still feel the presence of that most inspiring man, the greatest musician I’ve ever known.”

One hears the phrase “well-rounded musician” fairly regularly. But the tales of George Enescu’s musicianship invite disbelief. He made his living principally as a violinist, of course—one of the world’s finest in the era of giants like Kreisler, Flesch, and Heifetz. He was good enough a conductor to have been considered as Toscanini’s successor at the New York Philharmonic in 1936. He was an outstanding pianist—Alfred Cortot, one of his closest friends and perhaps the most important French pianist of his generation, asked Enescu why he, a violinist, had a better piano technique. He was at home with the cello and the organ.

In Bucharest, in 1937, Enescu was conducting a rehearsal of Act 3 of Wagner’s Siegfried when it was learned that the bass who was to sing Wotan was ill and couldn’t attend. Enescu sang the part from the podium, in a voice described as “incomparably full and exact,” and repeated the feat at the next day’s rehearsal. [...]

Perhaps the most astonishing illustration of the capacity of Enescu’s mind comes from a story Menuhin used to tell. He and his father were with Enescu when Ravel popped by with the score of his newly completed Violin Sonata; could they play it through?, he asked. Afterward, Enescu sought clarification on a few points, and they decided to play it again. Enescu closed his music and did the whole thing from memory.

It's always irritating to read about some great artist you should be familiar with but aren't.

MORE:
-George Enescu (1881-1955) (George S)
-OPERA ON 3: COMPOSER PROFILE: GEORGES ENESCU (1881-1955) (BBC)
-Enescu, George (1881 - 1955) (Naxos)
-George Enescu (1881 - 1955) (Romanian Home Page) Posted by Orrin Judd at July 11, 2003 2:01 PM