Impressions d’enfance (Impressions of childhood) Op.28 (1940) — George Enescu

Ménétrier (The strolling fiddler)

Vieux mendicant (The old beggar –

Ruisselet au fond du jardin (The stream at the bottom of the garden)
L’oiseau en cage et le coucou au mur (The bird in a cage and the cuckoo on the wall) –

Chanson pour bercer (Cradle song) –

Grillon (The cricket) – Lune à travers les vitres (The moon through the window) –

Vent dans la cheminée (Wind in the chimney) –Tempête au dehors, dans la nuit (A storm outside, in the night) – Lever de soleil (Sunrise)

(Movement headings followed by a dash indicate that the next movement follows without a break; those printed on the same line indicate that the movements merge together.)

Enescu made his last visit to his birthplace, Liveni in Romania, in 1939. An evidently memorable experience, its highly emotional effect is reflected in the extraordinary Impressions d’enfance, which is a far more ambitious composition than its modest title suggests. That much becomes clear from the first movement, an unaccompanied evocation of an inspired and brilliantly accomplished folk fiddler in the street. The old beggar is less ebullient as, mainly on the G-string and un poco raucamente (rather hoarsely), he appeals for alms. Following without a break, Ruisselet au fond du jardin is a brilliant study in violin-and-piano impressionism comparable to Fontaine d’Arethuse in Szymanowski’s Mythes.

After a pause to apply a mute, the violin imitates high-pitched birdsong which is contrasted with the unmuted harmonics of the cuckoo clock on the wall. A melodious cradle song is followed by another high-pitched imitation of a natural sound, in this case the song of the cricket on the hearth. This merges directly into a recollection of moonlight shining through the window, which is to be played quasi addormentato (as if asleep). The wind in the chimney, eerily scored for violin alone on the double-stopped G and D strings, merges at an early stage into a dramatic storm, which finally gives way to a glorious sunrise. As the composer put it, “Shafts of light enter, all through the room. Birds sing. All the themes of day and night come back, the stime in the major, pacified and transformed.”