Piano Quartet No. 2 (Enescu)
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| Piano Quartet No. 2 | |
|---|---|
| Chamber music by George Enescu | |
 Enescu in the 1940s | |
| Key | D minor |
| Opus | 30 |
| Composed | 1943–44 |
| Dedication | Gabriel Fauré |
| Performed | 31 October 1947 Library of Congress, Washington |
| Movements | 3 |
| Scoring |
|
Piano Quartet No. 2 in D minor, Op. 30, is a chamber-music composition by the Romanian composer George Enescu, written in 1943–44.
Enescu began work on his Second Piano Quartet in July 1943. The first movement was finished on 27 July in Bucharest, the second movement on 27 August in Dorohoi, and the score was completed on 4 May 1944, at the composer's villa Luminiș, near Sinaia, all during the worst part of the war for Romania. Nevertheless, it contains some of his most tranquil music. The score is dedicated to the memory of his composition teacher, Gabriel Fauré.[1][2]
The first performance of the work was given at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, by the Albeneri Trio (Alexander Schneider, violin; Benar Heifetz, viola; Erich Itor Kahn, piano) with violist Milton Katims, on 31 October 1947, under the auspices of the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation. A rival contender for the premiere was a French radio broadcast performance by Yvonne Astruc, violin, Maurice Vieux, viola, Charles Bartsch, cello, with the composer at the piano, on 29 October, but almost certainly in 1948 rather than 1947.[3]
