Georges Enescu (1881-1955) was a child prodigy on the violin and also the piano. He entered the Vienna Conservatory at age seven graduating at age 13. The next year he continued his studies at the Paris Conservatory. He became a violin virtuoso and famous teacher of the violin, but also devoted himself to composition. He is remembered today mostly for his two Romanian Rhapsodies for Orchestra, but he wrote in virtually every genre and produced a considerable amount of fine chamber music.
His Op.6 Violin Sonata was completed in 1899. It was dedicated to and premiered by the French violin virtuoso Jacques Thibaut. Enescu played the piano part. Enescu considered the sonata the first work in which he freed himself from all influence and found his own voice. In the sonata, Enescu fused Romanian folk elements into the classical structure of the sonata. The first movement, Assez mouvemente, is in the form of a fantasia. Its lovely chromatic melodies and rhythms flow in and out and through each other with an extraordinary plasticity. The main theme of the second movement, Tranquille, is a melody whose chromaticism gives it a air of melancholy. In the finale, Vif, we hear several folk motifs which are used, first to create a series of interlinked dances.
