TATIANA MAKUSHINA (Soprano)
PHILIP WHITEWAY (Violin)
THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Conducted by E. GODFREY BROWN
AT this end of Europe we know very little of Roumanian music; that we know anything at all of it is chiefly due to Georges Enesco. Born in 1881, he studied in Paris and in Vienna, but that insight into the more conventional music of Western Europe has not in any way modified his enthusiasm for the folk songs of his own country. In the exploitation of these he is indeed an enthusiast, and little more need be said of this Rhapsody than that it embodies half a dozen native Roumanian airs. presented without much elaboration, but with a skilful use of the orchestra which makes them into a highly successful piece of concert music.
The tunes have some kinship with the Gipsy element familiar to us in Hungarian music: their strongly rhythmic character is none the less clear evidence of their Slav origin.
(Soloist, PHILIP WHITEWAY)