Enescu Symposium Oldenburg 2006

George Enescu (1881-1955), violinist, conductor and composer spending his life in France, Romania and the USA, became an early mediator between East and West. After his death, however, Enescu's œuvre fell more and more into oblivion. The vast majority of the politically controlled musicology of communist Romania tried to establish the apotheosis of an ideologically pleasant and nationalistically endowed Enescu image, that stroke the West as anachronistic - at best.

Things have however changed a lot in Romania since the downfall of the communism. It is now only the scientific reception of this composer's œuvre that is but slowly starting to affirm itself. The Oldenburg Enescu-Days intend to renew the scientific preoccupation with Enescu and set it on a generally accepted track.

George Enescu's life and works are shifting times, shifting through times. Born a mere two years after Romania's liberation from Turkish sovereignty, educated in Johannes Brahms' Vienna and dying six weeks before the first audition of Pierre Boulez' Marteau sans Maître, Enescu was exposed to a large variety of currents, styles and times, of which many found their way into his work without ever being able to claim all of it for themselves. The insight into the drama of his existence between East and West facilitates the discovery of his hermetic œuvre and shows an interesting process of assimilating the constantly changing spirit of his age.

A musical program with extraordinary artists accompanying the symposium intends to place also Enescu's music into this new perspective. And the first audition of Dan Dediu's Homage to George Enescu clearly shows how important Enescu remains for today's musical world.

International Enescu Society

Symposium