Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / The Well-Tempered Rosalyn Tureck

Transcript

The Well-Tempered Rosalyn Tureck · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:05
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
• 0:09
  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
• 0:13
  You can subscribe to this podcast by going to
• 0:17
  our Substack page, and there's a link to subscribe
• 0:21
  in our episode description. please consider taking
• 0:25
  out a paid subscription and you'll get free downloads
• 0:29
  at the beginning of the month and some other
• 0:31
  goodies during the year. Rosalind Turek, who
• 0:35
  lived from 1913 until 2003, was known as a Bach
• 0:41
  specialist primarily. Although she did actually
• 0:45
  play a very wide -ranging repertoire in her younger
• 0:48
  days, by the early 50s, her primary focus on
• 0:52
  recordings and in concert was centering around
• 0:55
  the keyboard works of J .S. Bach. I've talked
• 0:59
  in previous podcast episodes about... how Russell
• 1:04
  and Turek's thoroughly worked out and thoroughly
• 1:07
  thought out and thoroughly processed Bach interpretations
• 1:11
  could sometimes have a hothouse quality about
• 1:15
  them, with more than a few touches of pedanticism
• 1:19
  and a super serious attitude that precluded...
• 1:23
  any joy or humor. It was as if this so -called
• 1:27
  high priestess of Bach needed to get out of the
• 1:30
  temple more often. Certainly, that was true in
• 1:33
  the later part of her career. I mean, I remember
• 1:37
  hearing her play the Goldberg Variations in 1990
• 1:40
  at New York's Temple Emmanuel. I think that was
• 1:44
  the temple. And I was sitting right in the middle.
• 1:48
  And her tempos were so damn slow. And she was
• 1:52
  accenting every downbeat as if she was hitting
• 1:56
  me with a ruler. You know, like... Oh, man. You
• 2:06
  know, the whole performance was just going on
• 2:09
  like this. And with all the repeats. And I just
• 2:12
  wanted to... die. And because I was sitting in
• 2:15
  the middle of the hall, which was totally packed,
• 2:19
  I couldn't leave. Oh, my God, how I suffered.
• 2:23
  But that wasn't the case when I heard Rosalind
• 2:26
  Turek play the Goldberg Variations when I was
• 2:29
  15 years old or something like that, where she
• 2:32
  played it first on the harpsichord, and then
• 2:35
  there was a dinner break, and then she played
• 2:36
  it on the piano. And this was at Carnegie Hall.
• 2:39
  And this was my first live experience with the
• 2:42
  Goldberg Variations, and I was just totally mesmerized.
• 2:47
  And in the mid -1970s, I had the good fortune
• 2:51
  to hear Rosalind Turek play a series of concerts
• 2:55
  devoted to Bach's well -tempered clavier at the
• 2:58
  Metropolitan Museum of Art, and those concerts
• 3:01
  were amazingly memorable. I mean, her sound just
• 3:06
  filled the room. And the contrapuntal clarity
• 3:09
  just really spoke out. I will never forget those
• 3:14
  concerts. But it was when I was a student in
• 3:17
  the 1970s that I first became acquainted with
• 3:22
  her 1952 and 1953 recordings of the Well -Tempered
• 3:27
  Clavier. These were originally released on the
• 3:31
  American Decca label on LP. i never owned the
• 3:36
  original mono lp pressings but i remember that
• 3:40
  i found a reissue that Decca had brought out,
• 3:44
  I think in the late 1960s. I'm not sure. But
• 3:49
  these were transfers that were electronically
• 3:51
  processed in fake stereo. So they didn't sound
• 3:55
  as good as the original Monos. I think I found
• 3:58
  these in a bargain bin in some New York record
• 4:01
  store. I can't remember which one. So we're talking
• 4:04
  about the 1970s. So it could have been King Carol
• 4:07
  or the Sam Goody Budget Annex or Dayton Records.
• 4:12
  on 8th Street. Actually, it was more likely the
• 4:16
  Dayton Records branch on Broadway and 12th Street,
• 4:21
  which was across the street from the Strand Bookstore.
• 4:24
  I also remember that on CD in the 1990s, I think
• 4:30
  that this Italian magazine brought out the Well
• 4:34
  -Tempered Clavier, these Decca recordings, in
• 4:38
  not very good CD remasterings. That was all we
• 4:42
  could get. But then I remember I saw that. Deutsche
• 4:46
  Grammophon had reissued them in 1999, and I saw
• 4:51
  a copy of this in a record store in Luzern, Switzerland,
• 4:54
  and I figured, are these ever going to turn up
• 4:58
  in the United States? Probably not. So, of course,
• 5:01
  I bought them on the spot because I wasn't sure
• 5:04
  if they'd be reissued at home. But, of course,
• 5:07
  they were reissued maybe like three or four months
• 5:09
  later, and, of course, I could have gotten a
• 5:11
  free review copy had I been patient. Anyway,
• 5:16
  it doesn't matter because I was happy to have
• 5:18
  the recordings. And then when Deutsche Grammophon
• 5:22
  reissued the well -tempered Clavier again in
• 5:26
  a Turek Plays Bach box set that also included
• 5:30
  her 1997 Deutsche Grammophon Goldberg variations,
• 5:34
  I was asked to contribute the booklet notes,
• 5:39
  and I did. So what makes these 1952 -1953 American
• 5:46
  Decca well -tempered clavier recordings so special?
• 5:49
  First of all, the sheer finish of Rosalind Turek's
• 5:55
  pianism in her prime and the absolute focus and
• 5:59
  definition of her sonority and her extraordinary
• 6:03
  micro -shadings of dynamic levels. I mean, her
• 6:08
  finger independence and her contrapuntal acumen
• 6:11
  is really amazing. And no matter how transparent
• 6:16
  or how thick the fugal textures may be, And no
• 6:21
  matter how many voices are in play, Rosalind
• 6:24
  Turek not only clarifies and shapes each line,
• 6:29
  but she follows through each line to its logical
• 6:32
  stopping point with no untoward accents. Is that
• 6:36
  the right word? Untowered, but with no unintended
• 6:40
  accents. That's a better word. And totally oblivious
• 6:45
  to bar lines and no bumps in the road at all,
• 6:48
  so to speak. She is particularly hypnotic in
• 6:53
  slow minor key preludes, spinning out long lines
• 6:59
  that just quiver with harmonic tension, like
• 7:02
  the B -flat minor prelude or the C -sharp minor
• 7:05
  prelude in book one. Each and every phrase, each
• 7:10
  tempo, and each choice of ornament seems to have
• 7:13
  been poured over and worked out and processed
• 7:17
  through a sieve, I guess. Every dynamic is calibrated
• 7:22
  to the nth degree, yet with the utmost subtlety,
• 7:26
  it doesn't sound contrived, even though there
• 7:29
  is a lot of study and contrivance, I guess, by
• 7:34
  definition of this kind of playing. But there
• 7:37
  are so many examples that I can cite, but the
• 7:41
  one performance from this release that I often
• 7:45
  use as a sample of Rosalind Turek's artistry
• 7:49
  whenever I give a talk about Bach on the piano,
• 7:52
  or whenever I want to turn someone on to Rosalind
• 7:56
  Turek who has not heard her Bach, I use the C
• 8:00
  -sharp minor fugue from Book Two. The fugue subject
• 8:04
  is in triple meter. And it has the quality of
• 8:13
  a dance. And, you know, you can imagine this
• 8:15
  fugue as the conclusion of a partita, maybe.
• 8:19
  Anyway, she plays the exposition with the subject
• 8:24
  and the answers. perfectly articulated, but also
• 8:29
  with the dynamic levels of each line carefully
• 8:32
  calibrated for contrast. And in the fugue episodes...
• 8:36
  Turek imposes diminuendos that are so gradual
• 8:41
  that you barely notice them. I mean, the architecture
• 8:45
  of the performance is so meticulously pinpointed,
• 8:49
  but the music always retains its qualities of
• 8:53
  dance. And also, listen to the E minor fugue
• 8:57
  from book one, which is almost like a tacata.
• 9:00
  But here, Turek takes it... in a rather measured
• 9:04
  tempo, but it really works because her legato
• 9:08
  control and her super worked out interweaving
• 9:13
  of voices totally hold your attention. And there
• 9:16
  is one instance in this series of recordings
• 9:20
  where her tempo increases gradually as the music
• 9:24
  unfolds, which was a rare occurrence for Turek.
• 9:30
  often the opposite would happen with this pianist.
• 9:33
  Like in almost all of her live surviving performances
• 9:37
  of the fugue from the chromatic fantasy and fugue,
• 9:41
  usually the textures get thicker and slower.
• 9:46
  It doesn't happen in her studio recording for
• 9:49
  Columbia Masterworks, by the way. But in this
• 9:52
  recording of the A minor fugue from book one,
• 9:55
  Turek begins the piece in a rather dour mode,
• 9:59
  hitting you over the head with her proclamatory
• 10:03
  détaché articulation of the fugue subject. You
• 10:11
  know, of course, I'm exaggerating, but you get
• 10:15
  the point. However, instead of getting thicker
• 10:19
  and slower as the music unfolds, the textures
• 10:23
  actually lighten up. over the course of the performance.
• 10:27
  And the tempo increases, not by much, but clearly
• 10:32
  that stone face is melting away. And, you know,
• 10:38
  this is a fugue where the close -lying counterpoint
• 10:41
  is very hard to keep in balance. And in the wrong
• 10:45
  hands, the fugue can sound overlong, like it's
• 10:49
  overstaying its welcome. And I have heard so
• 10:52
  many ponderous and boring performances of this
• 10:56
  fugue. But Turek really, really, really holds
• 10:59
  your attention. So the bottom line is that there's
• 11:03
  really nothing quite like Rosalind Turek's 1952
• 11:08
  and 1953 Bach well -tempered clavier recordings.
• 11:12
  And her integrity and her concentration and her
• 11:17
  attention to detail all... add up to a unique
• 11:21
  pianistic voice in this music. And when you listen
• 11:25
  to these recordings, you can get the sense that
• 11:28
  a pianist could easily aspire to and draw upon
• 11:33
  Turek's interpretations for ideas. However, she's
• 11:37
  really impossible to imitate. So, if you haven't
• 11:41
  heard Rosalind Turek's American Decca Bach Well
• 11:45
  -Tempered Clavier, you do need to check it out.
• 11:49
  And whether or not you respond to her conceptions,
• 11:52
  they are unique and they are not easy to ignore
• 11:55
  or keep out of your mind once you've heard them.
• 11:58
  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
• 12:01
  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
• 12:04
  to piano recordings. I look forward to being
• 12:07
  with you for our next episode. Be well and take
• 12:11
  care.