Classical Music | Music for Viola

Recorded on 09/11/2007, uploaded on 01/25/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Concertpiece for Viola and Piano          George Enesco

Georges Enesco's Concertpiece-though in its way a virtuosic work that features a wide range of technical displays on the viola-is first and foremost a lyrical fantasy displaying the color possibilities of the instrument.  Enesco was a very great violinist and occasional violist, perhaps more famous in his day as a performer than as a composer.  Though his early works are folk-inspired, the Concertpiece was written in a more mature style all his own.  The writing is inspired by Enesco's French contemporaries and mentors, such as Massenet.  Though the work is punctuated by outbursts of intensity, it is held together by a lyric quality that stems from a freedom of melodic structure.  The result is a work of beauty and dramatic flair that is at once the product of a masterful composer and a prodigious instrumental talent who understood so well the sound possibilities of the viola in combination with piano.      Jonathan Vinocour

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.