George Enescu - Piano Suites (Luiza Borac)

Information

Composer: George Enescu

1. (01-04) Piano Suite No. 1 in G minor, Op. 3
2. (05-08) Piano Suite No. 2 in D major, Op. 10
3. (09-15) Piano Suite No. 3, Op. 18 - "Pièces impromptues"

Luiza Borac, piano
Date: 2003
Label: Avie

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Review

A young man reflecting on Bach, then in early maturity indulging an amazing creative gift. Excellent playing

It’s not often that I recommend readers go straight to the closing tracks of a CD, but in this case the leap is worth making. The third of these Suites, really a collection of seven separate pieces, ends with two related movements in mystic vein, a ‘Chorale’ and ‘Carillon’, the first with rapturously beautiful chord structures, the second a pre-Messiaenic evocation of bells. Both are simply miraculous, and Romanian-born Luiza Borac plays them with more fluidity of line than either of her CD rivals: the otherwise excellent Cristian Petrescu dares a tempo that is just marginally too slow.

Taken as a whole, these Pièces impromptus are the most sophisticated essays on the programme, the opening ‘Mélodie’ like a meditation on Strauss’s Lied Morgen, the somewhat over-long‘Burlesque’ fourth piece reminiscent of Ernö Dohnányi in playful mode. The other ‘jewel’ is a quietly ruminating ‘Mazurk mélancolique’, placed third. Enescu penned the Third Suite while in his early thirties, whereas the previous two reveal a precociously gifted youngster infatuated with Baroque models, Bach especially. The second Suite (1901-03) is the more original, opening as it does with a harmonically luxuriant ‘Toccata’ and closing with a ‘Bourrée’ that recalls, in addition to Bach, a brief suggestion of Haydn.

The attractive First Suite (1897), a product of Enescu’s 16th year, really does sound like a Bach pastiche. It’s the one instance where I feel that Borac – who generally does this music proud – might have allowed herself marginally more expressive licence, indulging the sense of Bachian awe that seems to me very much part of the music’s soul, though she does excel in the tricky closing ‘Bourrée’. The clarity and intelligence of her playing pays highest dividends in the more dense language of the Second and especially Third Suites.

As to rivals, Borac easily holds her own against the less well recorded and occasionally rather foursquare Aurora Ienei though Petrescu’s imposingly played three-disc survey of Enescu’s piano music is also well worth searching out. A most valuable CD, then, and no mere musical byway, with authoritative and often poignant annotations from Martin Anderson and Borac herself. One hopes that it might be the first instalment of a second Enescu piano music survey. All things considered, we could certainly do with one.

-- Rob Cowan, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: **** / SOUND: ****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Sept03/enescu_suites_avie.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Sept03/Enescu_piano.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Oct03/Enescu_Piano_Suites_webber.htm
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/a/avi00013a.php
http://www.allmusic.com/album/george-enescu-the-three-piano-suites-mw0001383720

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George Enescu (19 August 1881 – 4 May 1955) was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, and teacher, regarded as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century and Romania's most important musician. He was the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory at the age of seven. Many of Enescu's works were influenced by Romanian folk music, his most popular compositions being the two Romanian Rhapsodies. He was also a noted violin teacher. Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras, Ivry Gitlis, Arthur Grumiaux, Serge Blanc, Ida Haendel and Joan Field were among his pupils.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Enescu

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Luiza Borac (born in Piteşti, Romania) is a classical Romanian pianist. Borac studied at the Enescu Music School for gifted children and the Music Academy in Bucharest, as well as at the Academy of Music and Drama in Hanover. In 1991, she was a prize-winner of the Enescu International Piano Festival and was awarded the Romanian Critics Prize. Borac performed extensively in Europe and USA where her concerts were broadcast by major radio/TV stations. In 2007, Luiza’s tireless promotion of George Enescu’s music led to receiving a special award from Music News (Romania’s leading music magazine) for her international support of Romanian music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luiza_Borac

http://www.luizaborac.com/

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