Arte Nova's George Enescu: Poème Roumain featuring Romanian conductor
Cristian Mandeal and the "George Enescu" Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir in the Poème Roumain, Op. 1, Vox maris, Op. 31, and the unfinished Voix de la nature of
Enescu. For some reason, this disc was not included in Arte Nova's box set George Enescu: Orchestral Works, although it appears that the recording, made in 1997, was not ready for that particular package, issued somewhat earlier. The edition of Arte Nova's George Enescu: Poème Roumain under review is a package assembled by Allegro Corporation and newly issued a decade after the original release, intended for the American market. As this is a budget CD and features three very rare, highly desirable works, under normal circumstances that would seem a recommendation in itself. Nevertheless, there is more to it than that.
The whole of George Enescu: Poème Roumain is at least a little underpowered in terms of recorded sound; although its sense of separation is clear it never gets very powerful even in loud sections and is dim indeed during the quiet ones. The "George Enescu" Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir obviously takes great pride in its connection to the composer who graces these ensembles with his name, but do not mistake these as being "authoritative" performances. Poème Roumain fares decently from a performance standpoint despite the sound, but the other two are shockingly inferior. With the later, more difficult tone poems, there is a clear degradation of the music in the middle of both works owing to sloppy conducting, the ensemble not being up to the music -- something. It is quite hard to keep a straight face during the central section of Vox maris, Op. 31, with its inept orchestral playing, howling tenor, and a soprano from the chorus who seems to be falling at one point from the balcony. You will not be laughing when you make it through some of the most luxuriant pages of orchestral music
Enescu ever wrote in Voix de la nature only to find the ugly chaos on the other side, the result of insufficient rehearsal;
Enescu's best music is simply over the heads of the orchestra that bears his name.
The disc is emblazoned with the legend "World Premiere Recording," even though all of these works had been previously recorded even the first time George Enescu: Poème Roumainwas issued! One cannot understand why conductor
Mandeal, who allegedly studied under
Celibidache and
Karajan, would not want to re-record the sections of these performances that did not work out. George Enescu: Poème Roumain is not just a bad recording, it is an irresponsible one that is not representative of
Enescu and would tend to discourage others who might want to investigate recording these works further, a pity as good recordings are desperately needed in these cases. Despite its one decent performance and decent moments in the others, Arte Nova's George Enescu: Poème Roumain is an unmitigated disaster, a "party record" that was recorded too quickly and prepared with not enough care.