Symphony No. 1

Symphony No. 1, Op. 13 in E♭ by the Romanian composer George Enescu reflects the composer's training in both Vienna and Paris. In the former location he studied the Brahmsian tradition with Robert Fuchs, and in the latter the French tradition with Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré (Botstein n.d.).

Enescu completed the symphony in 1905 (Bentoiu 2010, 98), and it was premiered on Sunday, 21 January 1906 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, on the fourteenth concert of the 1905–06 series of the Concerts Colonne, conducted by Édouard Colonne (Hoffman and Rațiu 1971, 311–12). It was published by Enoch et co., Paris, in 1906. The score is dedicated to Alfredo Casella, Enescu's former classmate at the Paris Conservatoire and lifelong friend. In turn, Casella would dedicate his Second Symphony to Enescu in 1908 (Bentoiu 2010, 99).

The symphony is scored for 3 flutes (third doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, E♭ clarinet, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle, tambourine, cymbals, bass drum), 2 harps, 20 first violins, 18 or 20 second violins, 14 violas, 12 cellos, and 12 contrabasses.

The symphony falls into three movements:

The first movement is dominated by the three component motives of the first theme, announced in unison at the beginning (Hoffman and Rațiu 1971, 306). It is in the traditional sonata-allegro form, with a rather short development section and the culmination in the recapitulation (Bentoiu 2010, 87–88).

The slow movement can be regarded as an extended Lied form: A–B–C–B–C–A, preceded by an introduction and concluded with a coda. However, the second half (the B–C–A portion) does not simply repeat the material from the first part, but develops it, and is not followed with a full recapitulation but closes rather suddenly with only the A material, and then the coda (Bentoiu 2010, 88).

The exposition of the finale, also in sonata-allegro form, is similar to that of the first movement, with the main difference being that the place of a first theme is taken by a group of clearly defined thematic elements (the first, in the unison strings, forms a quasi-permanent background, followed by a second figure in the brass, a third in the trombone, and so on). The second theme is anticipated in triplets, only gradually achieving a stable profile after several attempts (Hoffman and Rațiu 1971, 307).