George Enescu (often: Georges Enesco), *1881 in Liveni Virnav, + 1955 in Paris. His
hometown was renamed and today bears the name of this most important Romanian
musician. Pablo Casals called him "perhaps the greatest musician since Mozart".
Enescu was a composer, conductor, pianist, violinist and teacher. Among his students
were Grumiaux, Gitlis, Ferras, and Menuhin. He was also Dinu Lipatti’s godfather. The
10 CDs in this collection give a wide-ranging impression of the various aspects of his
career for the first time. With a live-recording from 1951 it also includes the very last
audio documents of this extraordinary artist. At the age of four he already played the
violin, and began composing only a year later. His studies in Vienna were followed by
his concert debut in 1889 and further years of study in Paris – with Massenet and
Faure among others. In 1898 the world premiere of his opus 1, the "Poeme roumain",
took place in the Concerts Colonnes. That very year he also conducted for the first
time in Bucharest. In the following years he founded and endowed the Enescu Prize
for Composition there, conducted the Romanian premiere of Beethoven's 9th, and
opened the Opera Nationala with Wagner's "Lohengrin". In protest against the
communist regime he did not return to Romania after a tour of the USA.