Plays Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier 1 & 2
This is the sort of set you start keeping score on, as positive and negative factors occur. The 1953 mono recording sounds every year of its age, so at four CDs for the price of three it's not a great bargain. Tureck writes at length in the booklet about her style of Bach playing and how it has changed over half a century, but she still endorses these performances. The listeners who respond best to them will probably be those hankering for the good old days when we didn't worry too much about issues of Baroque style. Tureck plays clearly and uses some proper ornaments, but she often romanticizes the music with slow tempos and extremes of dynamics. For every fugue she nails (like No. 12 in Book I) there are several that seem distended by modern standards. Even without the sparkling Feltsman edition for MusicMasters (recently deleted), there are several piano performances of the WTC available that will suit most tastes better, including the provocative and sometimes crazyGouldand the relatively straightforwardSchiff.--Leslie Gerber