Details: Rosalyn Tureck (1913-2003): Bach & Tureck at Home - a Birthday Offering. Classical Music, 1990. Total Time: 71:02.
All of the remarkable live performances on this album were recorded at the home of William F. Buckley in the 1970s and early 1980s. Buckley's wife first arranged for Tureck to perform a live recital for Buckley and about two dozen guests, as a surprise birthday present for her husband, at their home overlooking Long Island Sound. The annual tradition of such in-home live recitals continued for a number of years and this album (and however many others are out there) are the recordings of those performances.
Rosalyn Tureck was known as a serious Bach keyboard specialist -- even the legendary Glenn Gould cited her as his "only influence." She was known to have played Bach's keyboard music on both harpsichord and piano. Here, the present album includes her renditions on the piano of four sets of preludes and fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier, one of the English suites, the D-minor sonata, and the Italian Concerto, all of which are fascinating and compelling. Although there were apparently 25 to 30 people present when these recordings were made, you can literally hear a pin drop. There is not one distracting noise from the audience during her playing.
Having heard my mother play the piece countless times, I found Tureck's version of the Italian Concerto to be quite curious. She plays in a very different style than I am used to hearing, with what sounds to me like a few extra ornamentations here and there, and a noticeably different opening of the first movement with the first chord played as an arpeggio.
If I recall correctly my father gave me this album as a gift. I also believe this is only one of several such albums of hers in a series under this title...in other words, there are other albums "out there" recorded at the Buckley home including the Goldberg Variations. It appears that these recordings are quite rare as nothing is available even on Amazon. So I'm lucky to have even this one...thanks to my dad.
These are wonderful recordings and truly can be called priceless gifts. It's a shame there was no videorecording made. Buckley and his birthday party guests were lucky to have been there to have heard and seen these annual performances, and Buckley's wife came up with a great, creative idea for the perfect gift. Someday I hope to get my hands on the other CDs in this series.
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