Conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
I. Moderato - Un Poco Maestoso - 00:00
II. Vivace - Ma Non Troppo - 20:31
III. Lento - Ma Non Troppo - 35:56
Enescu began his Third Symphony in May1916. Three months later, in August 1916, Romania finally entered the War on the side of the Allies, but the country was soon on the defensive, with Budapest occupied, and after the end of the Russian war effort in 1917,Romania was forced to suspend its struggle with the Central Powers. Given the personal and historical context in which it was composed it is tempting to read into the Symphony's three movements an archetypal programme: 'Purgatory -- Inferno -- Paradise' or 'Earth -- Hell -- Paradise'. Whatever Enescu's intentions may have been, the radiant finale certainly seems a remarkable declaration of faith, in the face of almost overwhelming evidence to the contrary, in the potential for good in the human soul. The work clearly captured the public mood: the first performance, conducted by Enescu himself, in Budapest in May 1919 was a considerable success.
Enescu's ambitions for the work are evident in its scoring for an enormous orchestra including six horns, organ, piano, two harps and wordless chorus, but in many respects the orchestral textures represent a clarification after those of the Second Symphony. The first movement has the broad outlines of a conventional sonata movement, though with a first subject that seems also to function as a slow introduction. There are no obvious folk elements here, and even the frequent use of the mixolydian mode results not in folkloric overtones but in a restless harmonic idiom that at various points evokes memories of another neglected symphonic masterpiece from the early twentieth century, Josef Suk's Asrael Symphony (1905--6). The struggle and upward aspiration that dominates much of the music contrasts strongly with two lyrical interludes in a design that creates a strong sense of a tensions to be resolved later.
Although Enescu, reflecting the impact of the Franckian symphonic tradition in France, adopted three-movement designs for all of his published symphonies, the Third is unusual in that the central movement is not a slow movement, but a scherzo, and an unusual one at that. It begins with scurrying, sinister nocturnal music that alludes to militaristic marches. At first these seem merely threatening, but at the climax the mood turns deadly serious, with some of Enescu's most brutal and frightening music, before the terrors recede into the nocturnal shadows. It was perhaps no coincidence that at the time he was working on the Symphony, Enescu was also sketching a choral setting (which was never completed) of a poem by Mihai Eminescu entitled Strigoii (Ghosts).
The finale, an expansive slow movement, sets against the struggle and violence of the earlier movements a sublime, lyrical outpouring -- a clear alternative to the experience embodied in the scherzo. Yet it is an alternative that grows out of the past, for much of the music is based on transformations of material heard earlier. It is here that the wordless chorus makes its first, quiet entry. Although the voices are treated as further colours in the orchestral tapestry, they inevitably carry religious associations, and these are gently reinforced at the end by the bell and organ. Yet Enescu is not offering final answers, rather a belief in the possibility of such answers: a noble end to his most mature and ambitious Symphony.
