The variety of influences on the young Enescu explains how in 1906 he could compose a work as Romantic and backward-looking as the Konzertstück, a full five years after the stylistic breakthrough of the Roumanian Rhapsodies. Nevertheless, the Konzertstück is a well-crafted work of no little intrinsic musical interest.

The viola's opening theme is one of considerable nobility, Brahmsian in tone and harmony, though it also bears a striking resemblance to a Russian folk tune that was employed to good effect by Tchaikovsky (in his first symphony, "Winter Dreams") and Stravinsky (in his early Symphony in E flat, Op. 1). Enescu gives the theme a thoroughly serious treatment, with rhapsodic development and impassioned writing for the viola, improvisatory and replete with full-bodied double-stops. A faster middle section develops the theme further, taking it into darker realms of minor keys, with increasingly cadenza-like writing for the viola. The turbulence is brief, however, and resolves into a glowing reprise of the opening measures. The fine coda is vigorous and satisfying.



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