Richard Jernigan -> RE: Beethoven listeners (Mar. 21 2014 4:02:52)
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One sidelight on the Gould business, from the Wikipedia article on Rosalyn Tureck: "In a CBC radio special on Glenn Gould,[8][9] the host told Tureck that Gould cited her as his "only" influence. She responded by saying she knew that she was an influence and that it was very kind of him to say so." I heard Tureck in person well before I heard Gould on recording, so Gould didn't seem all that revolutionary to me. Gould was much better known, for a variety of good reasons, but not all knowledgeable writers preferred him to Tureck. For those unfamiliar with it, Gramophone is unusual among magazines of reviews, in that it requires its reviewers actually to have a musical education--no implication that anyone here is lacking one: "Gramophone, January 1999 Famous and unknown, the pianist eclipsed by Glenn Gould - Alain Lompech Rosalyn Tureck is no unknown discovered by a record company. This artist is one of the most accomplished musicians of this century. She has never ceased to play, be heard, admired, discussed, and copied, even, without ever occupying the forefront of the stage. She says so herself, if it hadn't been for a small American publisher, her performances would be out of reach today. In other times, however, Tureck recorded occasionally for several major firms, but her misfortune, our misfortune, rather, went by the name of Glenn Gould. The Canadian's playing was undoubtedly derived from that of his lady colleague, but in the consciousness of music lovers everywhere, it will have left him only a folding seat. The great commercial advantage in Gould's Bach technique resides in its unequivocal, simplistic character. That clear piano, that clarified, voluble polyphony was ideally ready-to-listen-to in the post-war years. So they made Gould the Bach performer par excellence. This abuse of a dominant position should be challenged: Gould only offers one of the oppositions in performance, for he has chosen to play descriptively, systematically, using a power of seduction that has put more than one listener to sleep. Rosalyn Tureck is no less voluntarist in her playing, but her more complex, less cellophaned performance, less easily accessible, too, give an image of Bach that is at once archaic, timeless, and sensitive without being expressionistic, analytical without being motorique. Owing nothing to the harpsichord, and taking advantage of all the possibilities offered by the piano - an instrument that is reinvented each time by the person touching it - Rosalyn Tureck is an artist without being an egocentric. Her great quality is to impose a perception of musical time that is incredibly different from one individual to another, by succeeding in recreating Bach's music in all its complexity. The contemplative will delight in the sumptuous sound of her performances, the keenest ears will excitedly follow the path taken by the Kantor's scholarly contrapuntal constructions and lovers of the piano will get drunk on the infinite variety of attacks and colours in such a venerable technique." And here's the scoop on Lompech: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Lompech But as always chacun à son goût. RNJ
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