Fw: [great-pianists] Rosalyn Tureck

[Nessie Russell <nessierussell@YAHOO.CA>]

I received this from another list.
Please note the reference to Glenn Gould.

Ms. Tureck was a lady ahead of her time.  Note her
interest in electronic instruments.

Her first public performance in New York was not as a
pianist.  She played a Bach concerto on the theremin!!

> > Rosalyn Tureck, Pianist Specializing in Bach, Dies
> at 88
> > By ALLAN KOZINN
> > The New York Times
> > July 19, 2003
> >
> > [For any discussion and the group's message
> archives
> >
> >  Photo at the New York Times site
> >
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/19/obituaries/19TURE.html
> > ]
> >
> > Rosalyn Tureck, a pianist and harpsichordist who
> played an important
> > part in the revival of interest in the music of
> Johann Sebastian
> > Bach, and who devoted more than six decades to
> performing,
> > researching, teaching and writing about his works,
> died on Thursday
> > at her home in Riverdale, the Bronx. She was 88.
> >
> > Ms. Tureck, born in Chicago, spent many years
> living in London,
> > where she acquired a regal bearing and the hint of
> an upper-crust
> > British accent. She was as comfortable in literary
> and scientific
> > circles as in musical ones, and was ahead of her
> time in arguing for
> > a view of Bach, and of music-making, that drew on
> scholarship, yet
> > was entirely nondogmatic and even fairly
> freewheeling.
> >
> > She could argue, for example, that it was crucial
> to understand Bach
> > not as a modern thinker, or as the beginning of
> music as we know it
> > today, but as the peak of musical development from
> medieval times
> > through the Protestant Reformation. In the same
> discussion, though,
> > she could speak enthusiastically about
> performances of Bach on
> > electronic instruments.
> >
> > Early in her career, before she decided to focus
> entirely on Bach,
> > she was an avid interpreter of contemporary music
> and a composer
> > herself, although she did not perform her works
> publicly.
> >
> >   [ That is odd. ]
> >
> > And because she studied as a child with Jan
> Chiapusso, a
> > Dutch-Italian concert pianist born in Java, she
> was introduced to
> > the sounds of the gamelan and a variety of Asian
> and African
> > instruments decades before the current interest in
> world music.
> >
> > Ms. Tureck was born on Dec. 14, 1914, and became
> interested in the
> > piano when she was 4. An intuitive musician with
> perfect pitch, she
> > learned the instrument at first by imitating what
> she heard at an
> > older sister's piano lessons. Her first teacher
> was Sophia
> > Brilliant-Liven, a Russian pianist who had been a
> teaching assistant
> > to Anton Rubinstein. Ms. Tureck studied the
> Romantics with her, as
> > well as Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart and late-19th- and
> > early-20th-century Russian composers.
> >
> > In those days, Bach was widely considered to be
> primarily didactic
> > music, good for developing students' hand muscles
> but too dry for
> > the concert hall. Ms. Tureck, though, was
> fascinated by his work,
> > and at 14, when she began studying with Chiapusso,
> she made a point
> > of memorizing a prelude and fugue from "The
> Well-Tempered Clavier"
> > between lessons. Chiapusso was the first to
> suggest that she
> > specialize in Bach, and although she continued to
> study the full
> > range of the piano repertory, she also began to
> focus on Bach's
> > music, as well as his techniques of ornamentation
> and the kinds of
> > instruments he used.
> >
> > When she was 16, Ms. Tureck moved to New York to
> study with Olga
> > Samaroff at the Juilliard School, and immediately
> declared her
> > interest in focusing on Bach. Samaroff was
> encouraging, but others
> > were not. When she entered the Naumburg
> Competition, she made it to
> > the finals and presented an all-Bach program as
> her closing recital.
> > As she told the story years later, the members of
> the jury said they
> > could not give her the award "because they were
> sure that nobody
> > could make a career in Bach."
> >
> >   [ I was always surprised Columbia took a risk on
> Gould's
> >     Goldbergs when he was an unknown. ]
> >
> > Ms. Tureck's first public performance in New York
> was not as a
> > pianist, but as a soloist on the theremin, an
> electronic instrument
> > played by moving one's hands through an electronic
> field, usually
> > between two metal poles. She played a Bach
> concerto.
> >
> >  [ On a theremin ??  Amazing. ]
> >
> >  Her first real splash, however, was at Town Hall
> in November 1937,
> > when she played six all-Bach concerts, a series
> regarded as daring,
> > but that began to win her a following. She also
> maintained a
> > parallel career, playing recitals of Chopin,
> Scriabin and Debussy,
> > and in the 1940's, she performed Brahms and
> Beethoven concertos with
> > the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York
> Philharmonic.
> >
> > Ms. Tureck continued to pursue her interest in new
> music as well.
> > She gave the premieres of works written for her by
> David Diamond,
> > William Schuman and Vittorio Giannini, and the
> European premieres of
> > works by Aaron Copland and Wallingford Riegger.
> >
> >  She also formed Composers of Today, an
> organization dedicated to
> > bringing composers and performers together. Under
> its auspices,
> > works by Messiaen, Krenek and Hovhaness were given
> their first New
> > York performances. The group sponsored a concert
> by the composer
> > Vladimir Ussachevsky that is said to have been the
> first program of
> > taped electronic music in the United States.
> >
> > In the late 1950's, though, Ms. Tureck began
> shedding her activities
> > that did not relate to Bach. Since 1947, she had
> been spending more
> > time in Europe, where the demand for her Bach
> concerts was greater
> > than in the United States. In 1957 she moved to
> London, where she
> > formed a chamber orchestra, the Tureck Bach
> Players, as well as the
> > International Bach Society, meant to be a forum in
> which
> > musicologists and performers could exchange ideas.
> In 1981 she
> > started another organization with a similar
> mission, the Tureck Bach
> > Institute.
> >
> > Ms. Tureck returned to New York in 1977, after 20
> years abroad, and
> > announced her arrival with a 40th-anniversary
> celebration of her
> > Town Hall Bach series, performed at Carnegie Hall.
> She opened the
> > series with two performances of the "Goldberg
> Variations" in one
> > evening: first on the harpsichord, then on the
> piano.
>
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