If all you know of Enescu are his First Romanian Rhapsody and Third Violin Sonata, then the 26-minute symphonic poem Vox maris - a work that preoccupied its composer for some 20 years - will likely come as a profound shock. Even Scriabin would have drowned in these waters, what with their pungent harmonic cross-currents (though G seems a general point of reference), exotic colours and densely crowded textures. Enescu's orchestra is huge: quadruple woodwinds, six horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (five players), two harps, piano and off-stage chorus. There is a form of sorts (slow-fast-slow) and the opening recalls the romanticised antiquity of Pfitzner's Palestrina, but the overwhelming impression is of vast, tonal tidal waves that ultimately defeat the sailor of the story (a death at sea) and draw cries of 'Miserere, Domine' from the soprano. Tolling horn lines recall the visceral impact of Sibelius's Tapiola (Britten also comes to mind) while the desolate closing moments suggest the sucking of shingle against distant thunder and a hollow wind.
Cristian Mandeal and his George Enescu Bucharest Philharmonic face a vigorous rival in the Romanian National Radio Orchestra under Horia Andreescu, but Arte Nova's more recent recording (1997 as compared with 1995) has greater clarity, amplitude and bloom. Andreescu is also very good in Enescu's expansive Op 1 - an outrageously precocious essay for a teenager. The Romanian Poem is redolent of Saint-Saens in its slow first section (which is tracked separately on this new Arte Nova release) and has elements of Romanian dance in the second. Again, the sound world is riotous, variegated and with mood switches from a fast polka to a joyfully swaying hora. There's a plot to the action (dusk, night, thunderstorm, rejoicing) and in the closing pages Enescu belts out the old Romanian National Anthem. But viewed purely as music, think of Liszt (primarily) and that upcoming First Romanian Rhapsody.
Which to choose? I'd go for this latest release, which packs the weightiest wallop (though Andreescu kicks higher in the fast dance music and Lawrence Foster is rather more elegant) and is certainly the best recorded.
Mandeal's extra is an unfinished torso that parades a mass of shifting colours. Voix de la nature emerges as a close-knit tapestry of sound that, like Vox maris, has an air of ancient legend about it. A good deal happens during its meagre eight-and-a-half minutes, but the petered-out ending offers no clues as to where the music might have been going. Again, the interpretation is convincing (though the playing isn't exactly front-rank), the sound excellent and the musical journey, well worth making. At a fiver, you won't find a cheaper ticket to a more interesting destination.
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