Roumanian Rhapsody Nr. 1

George Enescu composed his enormously popular Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 when he was just 19 years old, drawing on his prodigious musical memory to create a sparkling orchestral medley of traditional Romanian folksongs he had heard and played as a child. George Enescu was born in Liveni, Romania, on August 19, 1881, and died in Paris, France on May 4, 1955. He composed his two Romanian rhapsodies, Opus 11, in 1901; they were premiered on the same concert in Bucharest on February 23, 1903, the composer conducting. The first Romanian Rhapsody became his signature work. It earned him a place in the musical Olympus of his homeland, but its popularity also tends to overshadow his later compositions and he eventually saw it as both a curse and a blessing. The work clearly follows the model established by Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, a series of pieces for piano based on Hungarian folk themes (or what were thought to be such).