Creative legacy Luiza Borac plays Enescu - appreciated by PATRIC STANDFORD '... a worthy ambassador for a genius ...'

It is both strange and sad that the greatest all-round musician of all time should have a name which could be, and only to some now, one that is merely remembered as an afterthought -- and then only possibly. He was one of the world's finest violinists alongside Kreisler and Heifetz; a pianist whose technique was the envy of Alfred Cortot; a cellist and organist; a conductor brilliant enought to have been considered to succeed Toscanini with the New York Philharmonic; a phenomenal musical memory (he memorized Ravel's sonata after one read-through from the manuscript, and sang the part of Wotan from the podium at a rehearsal of Siegfried, Act 3 when the bass had been taken ill). He taught Menuhin, Grumiaux and Gitlis among others. And he was the composer of an opera (Oedipe), five symphonies (of which two involved chorus), many chamber works and songs. That was George Enescu, who died in poverty in a one-room Paris flat in 1955, the only musician to represent Romania, a country that has contributed little else to the chronicles of European music.

But now comes a most welcome recording of his three Piano Suites, written over a period of twenty years, and played by Luiza Borac, a new and outstanding representative of Romania's brightening musical prestige. The performances are brittle and full of energetic sparkle, most vividly in the finale from the Suite No 1, subtitled 'dans le style ancien' [listen -- track 4, 0:00-0:59].

Continue >>

For help listening to the sound extracts here, please refer to our questions & answers page.