Search - Bruce Boyce, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Enescu :: Bach: Mass in B minor

One to Treasure Forever

Robert Manari | San Francisco, CA United States | 05/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Without question George Enescu was one of the most prodigiously gifted musical minds of the 20th Century: he not only distinguished himself as a composer, violinist and conductor, but was also an accomplished pianist, able cellist and renowned violin teacher. Yehudi Menuhin, his most famous pupil, often spoke of "the Century of Enescu", referring to the twenty-first Century as the time in which his genius will, at last, be given its full and well-deserved, world-wide recognition.



In radio conversations recorded in 1952 by Bernard Gavoty for the French Radio (and recently translated for the first time in English by Prof. David H. Williams and published by Central College, Pella, Iowa), Enescu fondly talked about his favorite composers as being the three big B's: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Having said that, Enescu had a special affinity for Bach, and indeed, if one researches the catalogue of recordings that Enescu left behind, Bach appears more often than any composer including Enescu himself.



This BBC recording of Bach's glorious Mass in B Minor from 1951 is arguably Enescu's most important legacy on record in the field of conducting. His unique interpretation, passionate and spiritual approach to the score, subtle and delicate directing of the orchestra, coupled with wonderful and superb singers (Suzanne Danco, Kathleen Ferrier, Sir Peter Pears, Bruce Boyce and Norman Walker), all at the top of their form, along with a very capable and confident BBC Chorus and a Boyd Neel Orchestra never sounding better, are all attributes that make this recording a very special one, and one to treasure forever.

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