Luiza Borac
"Tender and exuberant..ever resourceful and imaginative pianist" GRAMOPHONE
Nominated for the International Classical Music Awards ICMA 2021 'Assorted Programms'
Nominated for Opus Klassik 2021
'Instrumentalist/in des Jahres'
C. SILVESTRI - Complete Piano Works Premiere Recordings
G. ENESCU - Piano Concerto Premiere Recording (live)
G. KURTÀG - Premiere Recordings
"Brillante Hommage an Constantin Silvestri" Pizzicato, 5 Stars
"Bravo!" Piano News, 5 Stars
"Für die Pianistin Luiza Borac sind die meist kurzen, sehr charakteristischen Sätze geradezu ein Heimspiel. Anklänge an Bartók arbeitet sie ebenso klar heraus wie die Nostalgie der späteren Werke. RBB, 5 Stars
"Eine wunderbare Virtuosin mit grandioser Technik, mitreißend gestaltende Vollblut-Musikerin" Radio Bremen
"De cet ensemble de 145 minutes qui forme l’intégrale de l’œuvre pour piano de Silvestri, Luiza Borac donne une vision claire et précise, d’une maîtrise chaleureuse et engagée qui met bien en évidence des qualités souvent proches de l’improvisation. Le parcours ainsi proposé est séduisant, révèle une personnalité sensible et vient avec opportunité préciser le portrait du musicien de grand talent qu’a été Constantin Silvestri." Joker 'Découverte' , Crescendo
Luiza Borac has been an unstoppable force... In addition to her recordings and research into Enescu and Silvestri, she has lavished attention on the compositions of the country’s most famous pianist, Dinu Lipatti.
Borac is therefore more than a dynamic performer and advanced scholar.
She is a social force with a healing vision, which gives a special reason to value this outstanding release" Fanfare USA, 5 Stars
"La belle découverte de l'oeuvre pour piano de Constantin Silvestri sous les doigts de Luiza Borac. Après ses intègrales de Georges Enesco et de Dinu Lipatti, Luiza Borac poursuit son exploration du répertoire de ses compatriotes avec la musique de ConstantinSilvestri. Elle joue avec beaucoup de tempérament et de chaleur, ...avec un toucher limpide..." ResMusica Paris, 18 September 2020
CD of the Month
International Piano 2019
5 Stars and ‘Album of the Month’
"...a lively and intelligently-built programme
played with winning, exquisite charm ...playing of magnificent bravura and finesse " INTERNATIONAL PIANO MAGAZINE June 2019
5 Stars
"...schon hier erkennt man mit wieviel Emphase sie Mozart zu interpretieren versteht, immer aus dem gesanglichen Duktus heraus..." PIANO NEWS July 2019
"mit grandioser Beherrschung und der Grandezza einer echten Virtuosin... Eine tolle neue CD der klugen Pianistin,
eine Virtuosin mit grandioser Technik, vor allen Dingen aber eine echte Poetin an den Tasten. Das zeigt sie auch bei Mozarts Rondo a-moll, einer Kurzreise zwischen Trauer und Trost…
Sie spielt Mozart mit einer Art „zweiten Naivität“ und blickt hinter die Kulisse dieser nur scheinbar einfachen Musik..." RADIO BREMEN May 2019
"fabulous, the repertoire is beautifully picked, well produced, superbly and brilliantly performed" FANFARE USA May 2019
In the end, all that's left for me to add is that no one should miss the experience of listening again and again to this Mozart record by Luiza Borac, who proved to be an awe inspiring interpreter of Mozart, as well as, for instance, of Enescu and Lipatti. We can feel Luiza's soul, which she poured into these recordings; I do believe that there's perfect harmony between the composer's personality and Luiza - the very same ingenuity, the same brilliance of otherworldly talent. Luiza's version of Mozart is playful, lively, yet at the same time mature, consistent, accentuated by technical and artistic means that come with the experience of a truly great pianist."
RADIO ROMANIA MUZICAL May 2019
"An impressive debut at Carnegie Hall. Stunningly played with sweep, clarity, alertness and a marvelously authoritative direction that dispatched the many technical hurdles with almost insolent ease." New York Concert Review
"Passion, sensitivity and tremendous technical control are the words that sum up Luiza Borac's performances" BBC Music Awards
Luiza Borac has been praised as a 'virtuoso of fantastic brilliance', a 'young master' and a 'pianist of unusual poetical expresiveness' by the international press.
The 'supreme Enescu pianist of our time' has become one of the most charismatic artists, not at least through her superb, award-winning CD Albums.
Luiza Borac spectacularly raised international awareness of her great compatriots George Enescu, Dinu Lipatti and Constantin Silvestri with her World premiere recordings. Her Album with GEORGE ENESCU Piano Works in 2007 went on to win the BBC Music Award for the best instrumental CD of the year chosen by the jury from 1500 CDs and with more than 40 000 public votes.
Highly praised worldwide her 2012 Album DINU LIPATTI complete Piano Works recorded with the Academy of Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields was awarded 5 Stars by BBC Music Magazine, Best CD of Piano News Magazine and Outstanding CD in the International Record Review.
Over 30 international prizes and distictions
BBC Music Instrumental Award
Silver Medalist at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition
1st Prize Mendelssohn Piano Competition Berlin
1st Prize Edvard Grieg International Piano Competition, Prix d'Oslo, Grieg Special Prize and Audience Prize
Steinway & Sons Wall of Fame
Fono Forum Star of the Month
Best CD Piano News
Outstanding CD International Record Review
Pianist of the Month at St Martin-in-the-Fields London 2014
Ambassadrice of the UNESCO City of Albi
Paul Harris Medal of Rotary in the End Polio Now Campaigne
2017 ALBUM Double CD Homage to George Enescu
Le Disque Du Jour Artamag France
Disc of the Year Radio Romania Muzical
"Luiza Borac aura beaucoup servi la cause d’Enesco, deux disques de Suites et de Sonates en témoignent. Cette sonorité pleine, cette technique impeccable qui lui permit de remplacer au pied levé Sviatoslav Richter en 1991 au Festival de Schleswig-Holstein, son sens des couleurs indiquaient une pianiste à suivre.
Elle y ajoute absolument ce qui est de sa volonté, et sa fantaisie est d’abord française : un Gaspard de la nuit joué à l’instinct prouve la musicienne, les Bagatelles de Mihalovici, roumain de Paris, sont des merveilles qui plaident pour la redécouverte de son œuvre.
Mais la perle de cet ensemble ce sont les Études de Debussy où un somptueux Steinway éclate de couleur et de sensualité sous ce toucher opulent, véritable orchestre. Je n’y avais pas entendu à un tel point ce faune inextinguible que seul avant elle Walter Gieseking avait su montrer derrière ces exercices qui sont des humeurs et aussi des paysages. Admirable.
Elle y ajoute un fragment retrouvé de Schumann, et enregistré pour la Radio Roumaine, un fringant Concerto de Schumann, fusant, vif, aérien, vous n’allez pas me croire mais tant pis, simplement un des meilleurs que j’ai jamais entendus."
Artamag, 2018
"Ascoltando Luiza Borac, interprete di preziosa misura per il modo con cui trasforma il suo ben evidenti virtuosismo in eloquente musicalità, sembra di veder ricomporsi in un'ideale continuità quell'arcata tracciata dai grandi pianisti della sua terra, che l'hanno preceduta, la Haskil, Lipatti, Lupu. " La Gazzetta di Parma, 2017
The endearingly unpredictable Borac leaves Enescu for a second well-filled CD with both books of Debussy's Études followed by Schumann's Piano Concerto ( ...) . ..) vivid and compelling readings of any of our studio origins.
The Concerto is a joy from beginning to end (...) " Gramophone, 2017
"Luiza Borac ist eine intelligente Virtuosin die immer kluge und besondere Programme spielt. Sie ist aber auch eine Vollblutmusikerin die am Klavier auch mal die Sau rauslassen kann... mit diabolischer Virtuosität, ironischem Augenzwinkern und nonchalanter Eleganz..."
Nordwest Radio 30 June 2017
"You would expect a disc to be uniform in spirit; but while Luiza Borac's remarkable new collection certainly favours a kind of emotional reticence, the recital as a whole is dizzying in its stylistic and expressive richness. I've been enthusiastic about all of Borac's recordings I've reviewed (Enescu, Schubert and Liszt, Fanfare 27:3, 28:3, 29:4) but this is better still. From the tonally plush and rhythmically flexible way she caresses Alt Wien, you know that this is going to be a disc of refined sensuality." Peter Rabinowitz, Fanfare
"heart-breaking tenor of Ion Buzea (accompanied by Luiza Borac)" Pianist
"For the past few years, I've been following the recordings of pianist Luiza Borac, both for their repertoire and artistry. It was clear from her previous recordings that she may well be a major artist of consequence. Her Chopin Etudes showed that she had all the virtuoso chops you could want along with something strong and individual to say about the music. I think she has become best known in the States, however, for her Enescu recordings, which have raised his piano pieces from curiosities to music one needs to know. As brilliant as her recordings have been, there has been the danger that she might be typed, save for the Chopin and a Schubert Wanderer impossible to find stateside, as someone whose value will be filling in gaps in the repertoire rather than the full blown artist she is. Her latest CD, "Inspirations and Dreams" for Profil takes care of that, and I think establishes her as someone you must hear. It opens with her beloved Enescu, but then goes strength to strength in Ravel, including La Valse, and the Debussy Etudes. This is territory well trod by by all the names you know, but she brings her own views and strengths to this music, and at every turn I was hearing Ravel and Debussy in a new way. The thing that has me looking forward to Borac's recordings, especially when I'm on the road, is there is always a sense of communication. It isn't that she imposes structures on pieces that aren't there, but you are well aware of being in her presence, as if this is not just a performance but as if she needs to tell you something about the music that is personal to her and to you as you hear it. If I could compare that sense to anything it would be what it is like when someone reads a passage from a book or a poem that is especially meaningful to them in the hopes that it affects you as it has them. She has all the virtuoso tools, as is obvious in Enescu's own transcription of his First Romanian Rhapsody, but they are always in the service of imparting something to the listener. As it would hardly be a Borac recording without something you have never heard before, she adds five Bagatelles by Marcel Mihalovici, a composer I have barely known for one orchestral piece, his Tragic Overture. It is well worth knowing, and I can't imagine him having a better champion. Finally, along with an encore of sorts of Schumann's Ahnung, there is the surprising edition of the Schumann Piano Concerto. It seems out of place , except that it is necessary for us to understand Borac's range. Other than You Tube clips I have not heard her in a major masterwork concerto, and even if the thought was to add this as a calling card for symphony bookers, it isn't long into the a minor concerto before you are glad to add this to your collection of performances by better known pianists,. This is a totally winning collection by a pianist you should know, because of the pleasure and artistry they bring. A final note: on the back of the CD, among the causes she is connected to, is a logo for End Polio Now. OK, as a polio pioneer [I was one of the 3 year olds they tested the vaccine on] I may be more emotionally and intellectually invested in that cause than most, but it is evidence that the heart I hear in these performances is not just a matter of interpretation, but is at the core of the artist herself."
Gil Gross,USA, 2018 Radio personality NBC, CBS, KKSF
"Chopin's 24 Etudes ..one of the most consistently admirable accounts among current complete editions" International Record Review
"Easily the best versions of those currently available...grace, radiant tone" Gramophone
"Wer den beiden klassischen Zwölferzyklen Chopins noch frische Akzente abgewinnen kann, darf sich zur Pianisten-Elite rechnen." Der Spiegel
DINU LIPATTI 100 (1917-1950)
2017
Tour Germany, Switzerland, Romania, Italy, Holland
30 concerts dedicated to the memory of the legendary pianist and composer Dinu Lipatti.
Druckversion 