ENESCU Cello Sonata in F Minor

Enescu's gorgeous single-movement Cello Sonata in F minor. Originally written to open the Romanian composer's Cello Sonata No. 1, the work fell into obscurity after the first movement was rewritten. Recorded for her latest disc with pianist Alexandra Silocea, cellist Laura Buruiana has finally brought the piece back to people's attention – and a welcome discovery it is too. Written while Enescu was only 17 and a student at the Paris Conservatoire, the sonata was originally intended to be the opening movement of his Cello Sonata No. 1, also in F minor and written in 1898. However, the single-movement sonata became a separate work when the first movement was rewritten, and is hardly known, only recently receiving significant attention. Referred to by Buruiana as Enescu’s ‘lost cello sonata’, the piece was rediscovered and completed in 1988, 90 years after its publication, by fellow Romanian Hans-Peter Türk. In the booklet that accompanies this thrilling new disc, Buruiana expresses her hope that the recording brings the sonata ‘the recognition from musicians and audiences that it deserves’.