Enescu conducted the 1948 premiere of his Concert Overture in Washington, D.C. Despite its title, the overture avoids direct quotation of actual Romanian folk songs, but every measure is infused with the character of indigenous Romanian music, as filtered through Enescu's late style, an amalgam of primitive folk influence and modernist technique.

Over strummed chords in the violins, the strings deliver the opening melody, a lively theme in Romanian style, sinuous, with unusual intervals and irregular phrasing. The liberal use of tambourine, shaker and woodblock, combined with an easygoing, cantering rhythm, creates an unmistakable equestrian atmosphere, as if the composer had saddled up the audience for a ride through the Romanian countryside.

The subsequent episodic nature of the work indeed suggests "things seen to the right and left," with the jaunty opening music functioning as an informal ritornello between the episodes. The first episode is luxurious in pace and harmony; the second features a melismatic solo flute over lightly scored tone clusters that shimmer more than assualt (an effect Enescu earlier explored in his Orchestral Suite No. 3 of 1938); the third is impassioned, dark and heavily scored, with solo trumpet and supportive brass prominent. The last episode brings the work to a conclusion, with washes of sound and an imposing tutti.



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