Enescu’s Cello Sonatas are not necessarily the first place one
would seek, in his chamber music, to find examples of his very best writing.
The 1898 sonata, for instance, written when he was only seventeen is in many
ways accomplished but it strikes a strangely obsessive note, the cello
nurdling away, as if muttering to itself after an especially bad ticking off
from the piano. Enescu works from small cells and this is also part of the
problem, as the music proceeds in short intervallic motion, with
introversion the prevailing ethos. True, the bumptious contrapuntalism of
the Scherzando is a relief where we find a certain droll charm,
enough to provoke the audience at this recital to burst into applause. The
Brahmsian slow movement strives but ultimately fails to achieve anything
memorable. The finale is gruff and gritty, not least in the fugal exchanges.
The performance is certainly serviceable though sometimes lacking in
subtlety. Occasionally the cello’s intonation wanders and the balance
favours the piano at times when it should be more evenly heard.
The second sonata comes from much later, in 1935. This was a time of
increasingly elusive harmonic writing for Enescu. The first movement is one
of quest whilst the second movement, a terse Allegro, reprises the idea of
tense angularity. Enescu seldom settles in this sonata, and things are
always on the move. The best moments occur in the finale where piquant
sonorities give a very individual slant. Extensive cimbalom imitations prove
evocative, the cello glissandi adding a gypsy allure, and Enescu’s
folkloric lexicon appears for the first time. The playing is certainly
intense, even rather uncomfortably so.
The recording is somewhat over-dry and had it been left to me
I’d have omitted the introductory applause as Dmitriev and Paley come
on to the stage. This is a viable disc if you want both sonatas, because
they’ve not been otherwise burdened with too many recordings, but my
recommendation is cautious.
Jonathan Woolf
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Alexandre Dmitriev (cello); Alexandre Paley (piano)
