George Enescu - Sonata-torso - for cello and piano

Nr. of pages: 30

ISMN 979-0-707664-89-6
ISBN 978-606-645-223-6

The unfinished manuscript of this 'Sonate pour piano et violoncelle' (original title) was discovered by Constantin Stihi-Boos (1936-1992), a researcher at the Music Cabinet of the Library of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest. He is also credited with proposing the title 'Sonata-torso for piano and cello in F minor.' The composition, in sonata form, was composed in 1898, with the manuscript abruptly ending in the middle of the recapitulation (m.202). To complete it, a continuation was necessary, fully in accordance (transposition) with the exposition, as well as its conclusion with a coda. Visibly related to the first part of the Sonata for piano and cello op. 26 no.1 in F minor, the coda presented in this text relates, both in terms of size and the gradual relaxation of the musical discourse, to the model provided by the final paragraph of the first part of op. 26 no.1. The work attests to the astonishing artistic maturity of the author (then 17 years old) and a perfect assimilation of the musical language specific to late Romanticism.

The score, now published, represents a reissue of the first print from 1988, published under the auspices of the 'G. Dima' Music Conservatory in Cluj-Napoca, revised and corrected by comparing it with Enescu's original manuscript.

The 'Sonata-torso for piano and cello in F minor' was premiered as an absolute first hearing on September 20, 1985, at the 'Ciprian Porumbescu' Music Conservatory in Bucharest, within the framework of the tenth George Enescu Festival.

Hans Peter Türk (2022)