George Enescu: Poème Roumain; Vox Maris; Voix de la Nature  (Audio CD) 
by George Enescu

Born in Romania in 1881 and trained in Vienna and Paris, George Enescu created a synthesis of Romanian folk music and the western European symphonic tradition in his Poème roumain, Op. 1, composed in 1898. This work (along with the following Rumanian Rhapsodies) was received with such enthusiasm that Enescu complained from time to time that the success of his early works was preventing his audience from appreciating his later compositions. The symphonic poem Vox Maris (Voice of the Sea) was written in 1929 but revised numerous times until Enescu’s death in 1955. Long thought to be unfinished, a virtually complete score turned up in his estate. It was Voix de la nature that remained unfinished. Only the first movement, with the title "Nuages d’automne sur les forêts" was completed. The fragment consists of forty-three pages and was composed between 1931 and 1939. Cristian Mandeal is Chief Conductor of the Bucharest Philharmonic, now renamed in honor of Romania’s greatest composer.