Symphony No. 3

Symphony No. 3, Op. 21, in C major is a large-scale orchestral-vocal composition by the Romanian composer George Enescu, written in 1916–18.

Enescu began writing the Third Symphony at Sinaia in May 1916, not long before Romania entered the First World War. During the withdrawal of Romania to the province of Moldavia in face of the invading forces of the Central Powers, he finished the first movement in 1917 at Iași. The second movement was completed at the height of the conflict, in January 1918, also at Iași, and the third was finished on 20 August of the same year at Dorohoi (Hoffman and Marbe 1971, 471; Malcolm 1990, 125, 274). The premiere date is disputed. According to one authority the Symphony was first performed in 1918 and then again at least once in the same year (Bentoiu 2010, 544n12). According to others, however, the first performance did not take place until 25 May 1919 at the Athenaeum in Bucharest, with the Orchestra of the Ministry of Education and the Carmen Choral Society, conducted by the composer, prefaced by J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 (Hoffman and Marbe 1971, 468–69; Malcolm 1990, 128–29). Although the symphony was an immediate success, Enescu was not satisfied with it and undertook a revision in 1920. The new version was premiered in Paris at the end of February 1921, conducted by Gabriel Pierné, but Enescu still was not satisfied and continued to revise the score for more than thirty years. The latest revision is dated 12 June 1951 (Malcolm 1990, 129; Bentoiu 2010, 196, 544n12). It was not published until 1965, by the Editura muzicală a uniunii compozitorilor din Republica socialistă românia in Bucharest.

The symphony is scored for 4 flutes (3rd and 4th doubling 1st and 2nd piccolo), 4 oboes (3rd and 4th doubling 1st and 2nd cor anglais), 3 clarinets (3rd doubling E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet), 4 bassoons (4th doubling contrabassoon), 6 horns, piccolo trumpet in D, 3 trumpets in C, 2 cornets in B flat, valve trombone, 3 tenor trombones, bass trombone, 3 tubas, 2 sets of timpani, 6 percussionists (snare drum, tambourine, triangle, ratchet, hand bell, cymbals, tam-tam, bass drum, castanets, xylophone, bell (F♯), thunder sheet, glockenspiel), celesta, piano, organ, wordless chorus, 2 harps, 20 first violins, 20 second violins, 14 violas, 12 cellos and 12 double basses (Anon. n.d.).

The symphony is in three movements:

Enescu employs the same thematic material throughout the symphony, cyclically, but develops it in different ways. The first movement alternates brooding, questioning, heroic, and lyrical moods; the second movement is a darkly sinister scherzo, relieved briefly by a bright march episode; the finale is solemn and serene, introducing a wordless choir. It ends in "a sort of quiet ecstasy" with the lightest of orchestral textures and employs at one point a small bell which, according to the score, "should have the same sort of sonority as the bells which are used in Catholic churches at the Elevation of the Host". The strongly contrasted characters of the three movements—and especially the paradisal serenity of the finale—have tempted some critics, beginning with Pierre Lalo in 1921, to interpret the symphony programmatically as a "Dantesque trilogy" of Purgatory (alternatively, Earth), Inferno, and Paradise (Malcolm 1990, 125, 128).