The Suite No. 2 for piano, in D major, Op. 10 ("Des cloches sonores"), is the second piano suite by
George Enescu, composed between 1901 and 1903 in Paris. It was published in 1904, and is dedicated to
Louis Diémer.
The Toccata was written in August 1901 and the suite was completed in the summer of 1903 with three other movements, for presentation at a competition organised by the periodical Musica. It was entered in the piano division of the competition, the Pleyel Prize, under the motto "Des cloches sonores". It won first place. The judges included
Claude Debussy,
Vincent d'Indy,
Georges Hüe, Pierre Lalo,
Charles Malherbe,
Reynaldo Hahn, Henri de Curzon,
Gabriel Pierné, and
Alfred Cortot (Bentoiu 2010, 72, 80). It is a composition that shows a French-style neoclassicism, the musician himself recognizing the influence of Debussy, but Enescu's Romanian folklore is not absent, rather, unobtrusive.
Divided into four movements, a performance requires about twenty minutes.
