Symphony No. 2 in A Major, Op. 17

• Enescu began work on this symphony in 1912 and completed it in 1914.¹
• Stylistically, this symphony explores the harmonic world of late Richard Strauss (Elektra, Salome).²
• This work premiered in Bucharest on March 28, 1915.³ The orchestra of the Ministry of Public Education performed the symphony. Enescu scholar Pascal Bentoiu suggests that ensemble may not have been up to the challenge of this symphony, making the performance disappointing, for afterward Enescu “stuck the score into a drawer, never to remove it for forty years.”⁴
  • The 1915 premiere was the work’s only performance until conductor Iosif Conta revived it in 1961, six years after the composer’s death in 1955.⁵

Movements 

1. Vivace, ma non troppo  
2. Andante giusto  
3. Un poco lento, marziale – Allegro vivace, marziale⁶

1. Joseph Stevenson, “Symphony No. 2 in A major, Op. 17 (Sep. 4, 1912-Nov. 18, 1914,” in AllMusic Guide to Classical Music, ed. Chris Woodstra, Gerald Brennan, Allan Schrott (Ann Arbor: Backbeat Books, 2005), 418.
2. Noel Malcolm and Valentina Sandu-Dediu, “Enescu, George,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed May 27, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000008793.
3. Stevenson, “Symphony No. 2 in A major, Op. 17 (Sep. 4, 1912-Nov. 18, 1914,” in AllMusic Guide to Classical Music, 418.
4. Pascal Bentoiu, Masterworks of George Enescu: A Detailed Analysis, trans. Lory Wallfisch (UK: Scarecrow Press, 2010), 138.
5. Ibid., 158.
6. George Enescu, Simfonia No. 2 (la major) (Bucharest: Editions Salabert, 1965).