Enesco had met Brahms before he was thirteen, studied in Vienna, then worked in Paris with Massenet and Fauré. His musical memory was such that he could carry French premieres by Fauré or Ravel. He founded the Society of Romanian Composers, taught the violin, and entered the academies of both countries. His opera Œdipe, first performed in 1936, had cost him twenty years of work.
The story
George Enescu was born on 19 August 1881 at Liveni-Vîrnav, in Romania. He studied at the Vienna Conservatoire from 1888 to 1894 under Fuchs, Ludwig and Hellmesberger, and met Brahms before he was thirteen.
He arrived in Paris in 1895 and worked at the Conservatoire with Massenet, Fauré, Gedalge and Marsick. The friendships he made there — Cortot, Casals, Thibaud, Ravel, Dukas — would last his whole life, and a prodigious musical memory let him carry French first performances of Fauré and Ravel.
In 1920 he founded the Society of Romanian Composers and was its first president, taught the violin at Fontainebleau and at the École normale, entered the Académie des beaux-arts in 1929 and the Romanian Academy in 1932, the year he became close to Béla Bartók.
His opera “Œdipe”, first given in Paris on 13 March 1936, is the end of twenty years' work. In 1937 he married Marie Rosetti-Tescano, widow of Prince Mihail Cantacuzino.
The war kept him in Romania; the coming of the communist regime drove him into exile. His last Paris years were hard — health, money — but he was still teaching at Siena and at Brighton, and conducting the BBC orchestra. He died in Paris in the night of 3 to 4 May 1955 and lies in Division 68.
The grave
A plain monument on which the inscription unfolds in two registers: “Enesco”, then “Georges Enesco, composer, knight of the Légion d'honneur, 1881-1955”, then “Marie Georges Enesco, née Rosetti-Tescano, 18-7-1879, 23-12-1968”. She had been the widow of Prince Mihail Cantacuzène before marrying him in 1937, and outlived him by thirteen years. One detail puzzles the inventories: the Légion d'honneur engraved on the stone does not appear in the Base Léonore, which records the decorations. The contradiction remains unresolved.
On site, do not miss
The inscription and its mention of the Légion d'honneur — which nonetheless does not appear in the Base Léonore — and, beneath, the name of his wife, who died thirteen years after him.
Visitors' questions
Where is Georges Enesco's grave?
In Division 68, Avenue de la Chapelle, first row — the same alley as Georges Bizet's monument, in the eastern part of the cemetery. He rests there with his wife Marie Rosetti-Tescano.
Georges BizetWho was Georges Enesco?
The greatest Romanian musician of the twentieth century: violinist, composer, conductor and teacher, trained in Vienna and then in Paris under Massenet and Fauré. He was Yehudi Menuhin's teacher.
Luigi CherubiniWhy is he buried in Paris?
Because the coming of the communist regime in Romania drove him into exile. He had lived in Paris since 1895, had studied there and kept his friendships there — Cortot, Casals, Thibaud, Ravel. He died there on 3 May 1955.
Miguel Ángel AsturiasWhat is his principal work?
The opera “Œdipe”, premiered in Paris on 13 March 1936 after twenty years of work. His reputation as a performer long overshadowed the composer: his prodigious musical memory allowed him to give the premieres of works by Fauré and Ravel.
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