Praise for the Oregon Bach Festival

“Eugene, of all places, is where the epicenter of the North American Bach movement has come to be — a classical festival that has attained virtual cult status in the U.S.”
—Helmut Mauro, Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Munich)

“Remarkable by any reckoning… a musical enterprise virtually without equal in America”
—Martin Bernheimer, Los Angeles Times

“An outstanding, rare conductor, equally good with chorus and orchestra… Rilling integrates his forces easily, obviously, irresistibly.”
—Janos Gereben, Post Newspaper Group

“This was the 25th annual running under the benevolent baton of Helmuth Rilling, and the word that comes to mind is ‘spellbinding’”
—Alan Rich, LA Weekly

“The ambiance that they have obtained in this city is extraordinary, combining the elements of entertainment and education… an atmosphere for families.”
—J.A. Vela del Campo, El Pais (Madrid, Spain)

“This is no garden variety festival. It is, on its best days, a sophisticated project that can withstand comparison with the finest in this country and in Europe.”
—Martin Bernheimer, Los Angeles Times

“What Rilling does in the Oregon Bach Festival is astonishing.”
—Paul Hume, Washington Post

“The Oregon Bach Festival is one of the best of its kind anywhere… a long-standing tradition that draws participants from all over the globe.”
—Robert Croan, Pittsburgh Post Gazette

“…superior in all ways…”
—David Stabler, Portland Oregonian

“Nothing can prepare one for the excellence of the Oregon Bach Festival.”
—Marilyn Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle

“A pioneering approach to programming.”
—Hilary Finch, The Times (London)

“That evening, the small city of Eugene, Oregon was virtually the center of the classical music universe.”
—Chris Mohr, On the Air magazine

“One of the world’s leading music festivals.”
—Wall Street Journal

“Rilling created an intimate, transparent, delicate space of transporting chamber music.”
—Janos Gereben, Post Newspaper Group/Register-Guard

“There is not other artist in the world today that is quite as untiring, competent, worldwide, and at the same time so simple and genuine in this music presentations as (Helmuth Rilling) the conductor, choir leader, organist, and teacher from Stuttgart.”
—Wolfgang Sandner, Frankfurter Allemeine Zeitung

“If the Hult Center had rafters, the roars would have raised them.”
—David Stabler, Oregonian

“I could only stay long enough to hear Rilling’s masterly direction… a performance whose unerring instincts free it from both cliché and point-making.”
—Hilary Finch, London Times • Review of the Mass in B Minor

“An outstanding, rare conductor, equally good with chorus and orchestra… Rilling integrates his forces easily, obviously, irresistibly.”
—Janos Gereben, Oakland (CA) Post