Discovered by the composer Cornel Ţăranu, "La vision de Säul"'s manuscript by George Enescu was entrusted to the National Romanian Opera from Cluj-Napoca, the first absolute audition taking place in 2019. The soloists were the bass-baritone Cristian Hodrea (Saul, Israel's king), the tenor Cristian Mogoșan (David), the soprano Irina Săndulescu Bălan (Michal, Saul's daughter, David's wife); alongside the institution's orchestra, at the conductor's stand was Gheorghe Victor Dumănescu. We talked, for the first time, about the score in the interview with the Maestro Dumănescu:

Maestro Gheorghe Victor Dumănescu, in the context of celebrating 70 years since George Enescu's passing, a complex personality of the universal culture, I ask that we remember an important event that happened before the sacred Easter celebrations in 2019. Under your supervision, at the National Romanian Opera from Cluj-Napoca, the first absolute audition for the cantata La Vision de Säul, five lyrical scenes on a libretto by Eugène Ademis, the score composed by Enescu in 1895 in Paris; he was 14 at the time. A recent practice brings before the audience Enescu's school works or unpublished scores. First of all, how did you find out about this manuscript and what about it made you present this work to the public?

La Vision de Säul is one of Enescu's many unpublished works, a big part of them being unfinished, and others just sketches, as far as I'm aware, kept in the "George Enescu" National Museum in Bucharest, and that is why we are so thankful to our great late composer, Cornel Țăranu, who indentified this score and believed in its value. From the beginning, he told me that it has an unexpectedly high potential. This was followed by the manuscript's transcription. Much of this is due to the work of one of my former students, an extraordinary musician, Flaviu Mogoșan. The Maestro, Adrian Morar, was also involved in the rectification…

…and the libretto's translation belongs to

Adela Bihari.

How would you describe this cantata, written for three vocal soloists and orchestra, with a French script?

First of all, it is an incredible work to be created by someone who wasn't even 14 years old. Enescu didn't turn 14 yet, it was about two months before, if I remember correctly, when it was written, and it was basically written after a text written for the Rome Award, as you mentioned at the beginning, as a contest work. He took this libretto written by a quite mediocre dramaturg and librettist, and turned it into a score of incredible dramaturgical power… the connection between all of the scenes… I can remind you that we are dealing with an orchestral prelude of immeasurable value and of Wagnerian influence, followed by one of Säul's monologues, a duet with Michal - Säul's daughter, about two thirds together with Säul, Michal and David, and another duet, Michal-David and the work's ending, basically Säul's death. They are all chained in a truly masterful succession. If we think about Enescu's age back then, we are yet again in awe at what he was capable of at that moment. There are many other works in the museum, I said at the beginning, that could be brought to life, and we don't really know what value they hold. They exist as manuscripts at the "George Enescu" National Museum in Bucharest.

Keeping the subject of this score that you conducted, where in the chronology of Enescu's young, school creation would you fit it?

What I'm about to say might be surprising - it is of school and in a way of an experiment, not of a composing scholar or a beginner. He said he was always dreaming of composing, not really interested in the instrument itself. And I, who encountered this score, was left not surprised, but with a true admiration and unsaid satisfaction to be able to work on it and give scenic life to this "cantata", because it is much more than a cantata. It is a lyrical scene, that's all we can say, although I just call it a one-act opera. From this we realize where he got that incredible power from and how much he worked writing his masterpiece, Oedipus. We can already see the signs of the moments that Enescu will have when creating Oedipus.

A cantata that I mention again is a finished work of George Enescu, for now, only at the level of a first audition, which took place in 2019 in Cluj. As a conductor, would you encourage your colleagues to introduce this work in the concert repertoire?

The work is worth it and it deserves to gain show value, not a concert. It was a reference moment. And now, I would gladly do it again if I had the opportunity. It deserves to be shown on stage. The scores for three soloists are not easy.

We are talking about a bass-baritone, a tenor and a soprano.

All of the ranges of a lyrical-dramatic score are found there and all the work needs to be handled carefully, with the soloists, as well as the orchestra. This title deserves to be with all the other values that we consider in the lyrical repertoire. That is why I propose to the young who hold in their hand the high-profile institutions' repertoire's fate to add it to the artistic repertoires in our country.

A universal composer, George Enescu, I would like to know, from your perspective, what role do you think this Enescian creation has in the universal culture?

There would be much to talk about this, because I still think we are not even in the world of those who bowed above the Enescian scores; we still have not managed to understand all the values that Enescu proposed in his creation. I will start by mentioning again his Oedipus, which contains all of the subject conquests of the 1930s, collects all that was good in the worldwide creation at the time. Enescu is an excellent catalyst, being able to combine different styles, because we can find all of this in the Enescian Oedipus, you know very well, from Wagner to Brahms, to anything, including our beautiful folk music.