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

Great performance and great CD-ROM extras

Rubén | 05/10/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

A Glorious Experience

Dermot Elworthy | Florida , United States | 12/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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.

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