Octet in E flat Op.7 (1900)

Très modéré – Très fougueux – Lentement – Mouvement de valse

The string octet is such a difficult medium – neither string orchestra nor chamber ensemble but somewhere in between – that it takes an inexperienced composer to get away with it. The two most frequently performed works of their kind, Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat Op.20 and Shostakovich’s Two Pieces Op.11, were written when their composers were 16 and 19 respectively. Neither Mendelssohn nor Shostakovich was so inexperienced as to be unaware of the problems but they both had the teenage confidence that they could solve them. For youthful ambition, however, George Enescu, who in 1900 wrote the only other string octet with anything like a regular place in the repertoire, rivals even Mendelssohn. While Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat is in four movements and lasts about half an hour, the 19-year-old Enescu’s Octet in the same key is in one movement and lasts not far short of three quarters of an hous – which makes it one of the longest single-movement constructions ever.

“I was gripped by a problem of construction,” Enescu explained. “I wanted to write this Octet in four connected movements in such a way that, although each movement would have its own independent existence, the whole piece would form a single movement in sonata form on a huge scale.” It was a daunting task he set himself. “No engineer putting his first suspensions bridge across a river,” he said, “can have agonised more than I did as I gradully filled my manuscript paper with notes.”

Actually, the Octet resembles not so much a bridge as a row of four stylistically similar buildings of different sizes, each one distinct in colour and shape from the others but connected to them both externally and internally. The internal connections between the movements are the themes they have in common. The opening Très modéré (which at 12 minutes is much the longest of the four) presents no few than six themes, beginning with the most important played by all but one of the ensemble in unison or octaves – a texture judiciously employed in a work remarkable otherwise for its contrapuntal complexity. A particularly attractive folk-like episode featuring viola and violin is recalled shortly before the end in a prettily scored coda following a late climax.

Although the end of the first movement, on a quietly sustained major chord, is clear enough, the Très fougeux (very fiery) follows without a break. A vigorous scherzo with a pronounced fugal tendency, it introduces one theme of its own and makes use of at least four from the Très modéré. Its quiet last chord, on cellos, is directly connected to the Lentement, an expressive and highly melodious slow movement based on two new themes but, as it proceeds towards the accelerating transition to the last movement, recalling more and more from earlier on. From a recitative-like beginning the last movement gradually gathers the momentum for waltz-time inspiration so spontaneously joyful that one hardly notices that it has a comprehensive recapitulatory function to perform while celebrating its rare string-octet accomplishment.

Gerald Larner © 2008