Customer Reviews

Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations (CD plus score) - Rosalyn Tureck

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like so many others weaned on Gould's versions, at first listen this was a disappointment. Once you downshift though, Tureck's cerebral, yet beautiful playing soon overwhelmed me. Just like Arrau, she plays each note and phrase with much thought and subtelty. The recording quality is excellent. A wonderful listen to this is late at night....

Slow and melancholical are the words i'd use for this performance. I can't imagine anything more beautiful than this. The absolute opposite of Gould's 1955 performance.

I am old enough to remember the stir caused in musical circles by the release of Glenn Gould's 1955 "Goldbergs". I liked his performances then and I like them now.

Bach wrote only two works in the Chaconne or Passacaglia idiom. It often is claimed that the Goldberg Variations are similarly based but that is incorrect. True, the fundamental harmony is unchanging and the variations are based on this rather than on the melody which more usually is the case but the work is not a Passacaglia. Nor is it, as has been described, a "seemingly mechanical sequence of elaborations". One has to suppose that that particular reviewer had heard only mechanically sequential performances for there is absolutely nothing remotely mechanical about these variations - unlike many of the banal and predictable offerings from Handel and a few others. Bach's Goldbergs are the very pinnacle of development of the Variation as a musical form and, as with the "Vom Himmel hoch" variations for organ (also canonic), he has exploited the art to its limits. The only other set of variations to come close in such creativity is the Brahms Opus 24 and appearing well over a hundred years later.

The interpretations of Rosalyn Tureck, leaving aside such obvious differences as tempi etc., are not widely dissimilar to those of Gould and it is easy to see why the latter preferred her approach to that of others. In a sense, they have both arrived at much the same point but by very different routes; Gould through his highly individual genius, Tureck by profound scholarship.

After half a century of listening to Gould's offerings, I feel I have outgrown his exagerated mannerisms, become irritated by the sour notes from his over-regulated piano and find his humming tiresome. More recently, I have come to admire Rosalyn Tureck who demands a little effort on the part of the listener in order to appreciate what she is doing and why, but the effort is wonderfully rewarded. One may appreciate these works on an intellectual level - every third variation is a two-part canon at increasing intervals up to a canon at the ninth in the twenty-seventh variation - or just relax to quietly doze off as, hopefully, did the insomniac Count Keyserlingk for whom these variations were (indirectly) written in 1742.

Frankly, I think Rosalyn Tureck incomparable and if I had to be limited to only one of her Bach recordings, (could I survive such deprivation?) unquestionably, this would be it.

The "enhanced" Deutsche Grammophon recording is excellent. Indeed, I think it the best quality of all the recordings she made - we are fortunate that this should have been reserved for such a special performance of the Goldbergs. I recommend these (2) CDs with unbounded enthusiasm and quite without reservation.

If magic exists in recorded music, this is where it is to be found.

Since my only previous experience with the Goldberg Variations is Gould's 1955 version, this performance came as quite a shock; Tureck's version is much more slow and stately in general, with all the repeats preserved (hence the 80 minute length). The real excitement with this cd is the excellent CD-ROM portion, which has the entire score, analysis of the piece, background on Bach and Tureck, and more. Well worth the small price for these extras, which only enhanced my enjoyment of this great piece.

I've listened to several of Tureck's other recordings of the Variations and have been a Tureck (and Gould) fan for many years. But this version reflects the distillation of a lifetime's passionate study and is one of the d*mnd*st performances of any work I've ever heard.

What an amazing recording !!!!!!!!! I was accustomed to fast recordings like Perahia and Hewitt. Then I listened to it. At the beggining I was surprissed by its slow tempi. But then I added what other listeners perhaps don`t have: patience. Patience to listen what a lifelong experience has to say about this paramount work. Only with patience you begin to discover the reasures Tureck offers to us. His phrasing. She has a way of adding the exact volume to each note, in such a way that she persuades us his interpretion is reference. It is coherent and absorbing. It is spontaneus in many times eg in the "slow" variations. She also adds nice ornaments within a section (not among repeats, I think). She is a master of details: she handles dinamics in such a way her tempi are NOT dragging. I love the piano sound she makes: a piano sound, but that makes us to remember a certain "harpsichord - like" character. Slow tempi? sometimes, sure. Other tempi are just a bit more moderate than usual. That lets us to unveil with great clarity Bach`s writing, like a radiography. Nothing sounds too slow, thanks to her dinamic control, her exemplary touching and her way of ornamentation, with discretion but with wisdom. In other words, in another hands, with these tempi the recording would be a failure. In hers, is a triumph. You only have to be patient. As she says, she does not play in order to show pyrotechnics, but to bring out a life experience. And she shows why she and Bach are like twin souls. Glenn Gould admired her recordings. The CD cover says something like this : "she makes us think her way of interpretation is THE way to play Bach: this is the hallmark of a great artist". I say again, although I love faster speeds than hers, when I listen to these Cds in the end I agree with that opinion. She is so persuasive ...
Not to mention the informatics: this CD has detailed commentaries in the CD ROM, and MIDI files that let you make your own version: you can add different instruments to the voices or just listen to a single voice. It is great fun !!!

Tureck's performance is characterized by slower than usual tempi, but with a resulting clarity that struck me as spiritual, over and over. The tempi make this an unusual, even a unique performance. It might not be the version that everyone will turn to as their primary choice, but the revelations brought out by the pianist make this a performance that I will be returning to frequently. I own the two Gould recordings and the one by Charles Rosen. I consider Rosen's the finest "conventional" piano performance I know, but I wouldn't be without Tureck's gem.

Rosalyn Tureck's CD featuring the Goldberg Variations as interpreted by her was an eye-opener. for I always felt that Bach's keyboard music should be best played on the harpsichord, clavichord, spinet or pipe organ...believing that Bach himself had no great love for the piano (although he did play early pianos built by Silbermann when he visited Sans Soucci and Frederick the Great during the waning years of his life. Tureck's reputation in life (early 20th century)as a Bach interpreter equalled that of Wanda Landowska...but held no meaning for me until I heard this CD. She is masterful, poetic, graceful with wonderful "turns" that befits Bach's music. Others have enjoyed a more extensive reputation...but, I prefer listening to the music...not the artist humming along (Bach aficiandos will know to whom I refer!). I regret that I will not have the opportunity of hearing Tureck live and in person since she has passed on.

Tureck conveys an intimate understanding of Bach through her performance of the Goldberg Variations on these CDs. Hearing her play the complete BWV 988 was like hearing it for the first time. I believe I said out loud, "Now, THAT is the way Bach
intended it". In my opinion, this is the finest performance of
the Goldberg Variations on record. By all means, purchase it while you still can. If you are a musician, you'll love the extra features on the CD-ROM.

I only wish I had come across this artist at an earlier date. As far as I am concerned, she is the outstanding performer of the Bach piano repertoire. She always places the genius of Bach ahead of her own, which is the way it should be done and seldom is.