George Enescu’s Violin in the Home of Dr Aurel and Lucia Cosma

A Musical Evening in a Timișoara House:

George Enescu’s Violin in the Home of Dr Aurel and Lucia Cosma

After the death of his first wife Irma Stupa, Partenie Cosma married, on June 7, 1874, Maria Roman. He was a lawyer, politician and director of Albina Bank in Sibiu, and she was the daughter of Daniil, brother to Miron Romanul, Metropolitan of Ardeal County. Partenie and Maria had four children, Lucia-Minodora, Hortensia, Romulus and Remus.

Lucia-Minodora married Aurel Cosma, a young lawyer from Timișoara, son to Damaschin and to his wife born into the famous families Mocioni and Vukovici. Widowed, Aurel’s mother was unable to pay for his tuition abroad, but the boy was adopted by his uncle, Aurel Cosma, future prefect of Timiș-Torontal, who sponsored his studies at the Faculty of Law in Budapest. After graduating, young Aurel was drafted in the military, and during his service in the Artillery Corps in Sibiu he met Lucia.

The Cosmas settled in the Fabric neighbourhood of Timișoara. From the Dr Aurel Cosma Fund of the local branch of the National Archives is apparent that Lucia was religious: one document records the purchase “for life of the chair no. 3, on the right side of the church in Fabric”, curate Siladie Constantin Istvănescu, on April 14, 1915.

Lucia Cosma was a well-known soprano both in Timișoara and abroad, singing in Austria, England, and Italy. She was both very beautiful – she featured on postcards of the time and the press called her the most fine-looking and elegant woman in Sibiu – and cultivated, fluent in six languages.

Between 1921 and 1943, George Enescu played twelve times in Timișoara (1921, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1929, 1931, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1942 și 1943), highly acclaimed events in such publications as Temeswarer Zeitung, Nădejdea, Temesvari Hirlap, Banater Zeitung, Vointa Banatului, Orai Ujsag, Magyar Neplap, Deli Hirlap, Fruncea, Vestul, Dacia. On May 25, 1921, after the first concert, the Temeswarer Zeitung wrote: “For many years now we have seen the greatest artists, but no violinist could match George Enescu, who yesterday evening, in the Great Hall of the Military Casino, led his listeners to ecstasy with his extraordinary art”.

On the occasion of one of his Timișoara concerts, Enescu was invited by the Cosmas in their house on 5, Gheorghe Marinescu Street, formerly Miron Romanul Street. There is no detailed information on neither the visit, nor the date it took place. My research in the Timișoara branch of the National Archives shows that it could not have happened in 1931, as was thought (named honorary citizen of the city of Timișoara, Enescu performed there three thank-you concerts, on November 25-27). Lucia and Aurel having divorced in 1925 and Dr Cosma having died on July 31, 1931, I believe this visit could have taken place in 1921, in 1922 or in 1923.

Luciana Ianculescu

Timișoara