Tureck

Bach & Tureck at Home: Aria with Thirty Variations, BWV 988, Clavierübung, Part IV ("Goldberg Variations")
Rosalyn Tureck, Piano
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC (tracks): 270 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Classical Music # TROY007 | Country/Year: US 1988
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Piano

"Rosalyn Tureck's recording is very special indeed- there is no other record of Bach played on the piano quite as compelling as this."

This long-deleted Essential Classics reissue (available again courtesy of Arkivmusic.com’s on-demand reprint program) comprises the first CD remastering of two separate Bach piano releases. One disc features Rosalyn Tureck’s Bach Album, an early-1981 digital production made up mostly of short pieces, plus the Aria and Variations in Italian Style. The close-up yet warm sonics capture the full measure of Tureck’s technical specificity, subtle use of color, and micromanaged dynamics. Notice her absolute linear control in the F minor suite’s Prelude (first sound clip), or how her seemingly over-detached articulations (the seventh Italian variation) always maintain a lilting presence.

All of the important interpretations by the “high priestess of Bach” - The basis of all piano music - Incl. “Well-Tempered Clavier”, “Goldberg Variations”, the Partitas, the Italian Concerto, the French Overture, the Capriccio in B flat major, and many more.

Phillips' Great Pianists of the 20th Century issue has gotten a lot of publicity in the ten or so years since it has been released. In a musical niche suffering from falling revenues, it was a decent seller. But it left many connoisseurs disappointed, as the quality was limited to the fancy packaging.

Sharon Isbin - Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez und Spanische Gitarrenstücke
Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra / Hideomi Kuroiwa
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 162 MB | Full Artwork: 32 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Denon "This is Classic" # DEG-10024 | Country/Year: Germany 1994
Genre: Classical | Style: Spanish Guitar, Early 20th Century, Romantic

"Described by the Boston Globe's Michael Manning as a musician who plays "beyond virtuosity," guitarist Sharon Isbin has been a consistent challenge for critics, who struggle to find the right superlative that would do justice to her exquisite playing. "In her hands," wrote Anne Midgette in The New York Times, "the guitar takes on the precision of a diamond, each note a clear, shining facet that catches, prism-like, a glimpse of the spectrum." In essence, a performance by Isbin is like a painting by Vermeer: a formally impeccable and inexhaustible work of art."