Rosalyn Tureck
Premiere Performances

* Diamond: Piano Sonata No. 1
* Dallapiccola: Two Studies for Violin and Piano
* Schuman: Piano Concerto (revised 1942)

Rosalyn Tureck (piano), Ruggiero Ricci (violin)
Saidenberg Little Symphony/Daniel Saidenberg VAI VAIA1124 Total time: 62:26

Summary for the Busy Executive: That girl can *play*.

These days, we tend to think of Tureck as a Bach specialist, and I suspect
at least some of us mistrust this exclusivity.  After all, Bach doesn't
provide the Romantic keyboard pyrotechnique of a Liszt or a Rachmaninoff,
and there was indeed a relatively prominent Mozartean who simply hadn't
the fingers to perform anyone else.  We forget that at the outset of
her career, Tureck played everything - Beethoven, Chopin, the operatic
paraphrases of people like Godowsky - the stuff of the young virtuoso in
the Thirties and Forties.  She also played her share of then-contemporary
music.  Typical of Tureck, contemporary music was not simply the way to get
noticed, before one then had the career security to settle into a lifetime
of "safe" programming.  She strongly believed in performers and composers
talking to each other and founded at least one concert series devoted to
contemporary music.  Besides, Tureck didn't need to get noticed.  People
noticed *her*.  Diamond composed the magnificent piano sonata heard on this
CD uncommissioned and unasked, simply because Tureck's playing inspired
him.  As William F.  Buckley remarked, the only thing wrong with Tureck's
dedication to Bach was that it deprived us of her Brahms and Chopin.  Now
VAI Audio has released at least three CDs documenting Tureck's earlier
career, and we can hear for ourselves what the clamor was about.

The best work on the CD - for me, the Diamond - belongs to that somewhat
obscure category, the American Piano Sonata.  With the exceptions of
the Ives Second, the Griffes, the Barber, and the Carter, I can't think
off the top of my head of anything approaching the status of repertory
classic.  The Diamond and the Talma Second would, in a better world, be
better known.  Both set out for the monumental and pretty much hit what
they aim at.  Diamond has acknowledged the influence of the late Beethoven
sonatas, and one can easily see the resemblances to the op.  110, with
Diamond's conflation of two movements in one and extended fugue.  Diamond
gives us, in fact, two fugues, one as the peroration of the first movement
and the second (a double fugue) a summing up of the entire sonata.  The
composer had counted Tureck's Bach recitals among his best concert
experiences, and when he began the sonata with Tureck in mind, the one
thing he knew for sure was that there would be a fugue.  The entire sonata
alternates between the declamatory and the contrapuntal.  Tureck plays the
bejabbers out of it - a huge tone that "calls the meeting to order" and a
panoply of "touch." As with her Bach playing, you have the feeling that she
can emphasize any line she wishes and that she has decided to bring out the
structurally most important ones.  The recording makes it clear that Tureck
has absorbed the work into her bones; it is assured, free, and powerful.
Tureck's performance lets a premiere sound like an instant classic - an
account at a level most composers would sell their souls for.  Diamond must
have been thrilled.

I love Dallapiccola's music in general.  My enthusiasm doesn't extend to
this particular piece.  It is obviously composed by a master musician, but
it seems all too foursquare to me, particularly the fugal second movement.
Of course, a monochromatic realization by Ricci doesn't help.  Tureck does
fine, but, again, the piece doesn't really grab me.

William Schuman's piano concerto is a lot of fun, but it's not a major
piece in his catalogue.  In the decades following its 1943 premiere (this
performance), he himself almost had forgotten about it.  It took an account
by Gary Steigerwalt in 1978 to remind the composer and to inspire him to
write more piano music.  Tureck has power without banging and overwhelms
the poor orchestra.  She's got the piece under her belt.  The orchestra is
a bit ragged and hesitant and seems almost to fake certain passages.  In
short, I wouldn't get this CD for the Schuman unless you're a Tureck fan or
a Schuman headbanger, for this seems to be the only recording currently
available.  If you simply want to explore, I'd wait until a better
orchestra tackles it.

We have essentially acetates from Tureck's private vault.  I don't believe
any of these recordings were intended for commercial release.  The sound
is, of course, mono throughout.  It's acceptable in the Diamond and in the
Dallapiccola, too deteriorated in the Schuman.

Steve Schwartz