1. George Enescu's father was Costache Enescu, a landholder, and his mother was Maria Enescu, the daughter of an Orthodox priest.
19 Facts About George Enescu
1. 2.
George Enescu was the second person ever to be admitted to the Vienna Conservatory by a dispensation of age, and was the first non-Austrian.
3.
In 1891, the ten-year-old George Enescu gave a private concert at the Court of Vienna, in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph.
4.
George Enescu graduated at the age of 12, earning the silver medal.
5.
George Enescu studied violin with Martin Pierre Marsick, harmony with Andre Gedalge, and composition with Jules Massenet and Gabriel Faure.
6.
George Enescu then studied from 1895 to 1899 at the Conservatoire de Paris.
7.
On 6 February 1898, at the age of 16, George Enescu presented in Paris his first mature work, Poema Romana, played by the Colonne Orchestra, then one of the most prestigious in the world, and conducted by Edouard Colonne.
8.
George Enescu wrote five mature symphonies, a symphonic poem Vox maris, and much chamber music.
9.
Around the same time, George Enescu took the young Yehudi Menuhin to the Colonial Exhibition in Paris, where he introduced him to the Gamelan Orchestra from Indonesia.
10.
George Enescu appeared as a conductor with many American orchestras and, in 1936, was one of the candidates considered to replace Arturo Toscanini as permanent conductor of the New York Philharmonic.
11.
In 1932, George Enescu was elected a titular member of the Romanian Academy.
12.
George Enescu conducted the New York Philharmonic between 1937 and 1938.
13.
George Enescu began teaching at the Mannes School of Music in 1948.
14.
George Enescu's students included Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras, Ivry Gitlis, Arthur Grumiaux, Serge Blanc, Ida Haendel, Uto Ughi, and Joan Field.
15.
George Enescu promoted contemporary Romanian music, playing works of Constantin Silvestri, Mihail Jora, Ionel Perlea and Martian Negrea.
16.
An annotated version of this work brings together the indications of George Enescu regarding sonority, phrasing, tempos, musicality, fingering and expression.
17.
Queen Marie of Romania wrote in her memoirs that "in George Enescu was real gold".
18.
George Enescu founded the George Enescu Prize in composition, which was awarded from 1913 to 1946, and afterwards by the National University of Music Bucharest.
19.
George Enescu's portrait appeared on the redesigned 5 lei Romanian banknote in 2005.