George Enescu: Complete Works For Solo Piano 1 – De Solaun

   in Piano International (May, 2017)
According to one recent commentator, George Enescu ‘is the greatest composer whose greatness is not yet generally recognised’. He is remembered today chiefly as a virtuoso violinist and teacher (his pupils famously included Yehudi Menuhin), whereas in his lifetime Enescu (1881-1955) was also renowned for his compositions. The solo piano music certainly demonstrates a remarkable stylistic range. While early pieces suggest the influence of Brahms, with whom he played, and Fauré, with whom he studied, later works such as the second suite, the first and third sonatas and the Piéces Impromptu show him transmuting elements of German Romanticism, French Impressionism and the folk music of his native Romania into an …