Rosalyn Tureck Decca Bach Well-Tempered Clavier LPs Books 1 & 2 BOTH BOXED SETS

$ 181

$ 181 Sold For

Jun 22, 2014 Sold Date

Jun 15, 2014 Start Date

$ 100 Start price

5 Number Of Bids

USA Country Of Seller

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Description

Rosalyn Tureck Decca Bach Well-Tempered Clavier LPs Books 1 & 2

Two Decca 3-LP sets DX 127 and DX 128

Here we have on offer a nicely preserved complete set of pianist Rosalyn Tureck’s legendary Decca LP recordings of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (WTC). Book 1 is on three LPs in boxed set DX 127; Book 2 is on three LPs in boxed set DX 128. As far as I can tell, these two Decca/Tureck/WTC boxed sets are almost never offered together in one eBay auction.

Rosalyn Tureck’s name is usually associated with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach as played on the harpsichord or the modern piano, but her interests and career were broader than that. A fascinating factoid is that one of Tureck’s teachers was Leon Theremin, the inventor of the analog electronic instrument (synthesizer) that bears his name. Indeed, Tureck made her Carnegie Hall début playing not the harpsichord or the modern piano, but: a Theremin!

Fun fact aside, without question, Tureck was one of the most important Bach interpreters of the 20th century. Glenn Gould, famous for going his own way in almost all things, once stated that the “only” pianist he considered to have been an influence upon him was: Rosalyn Tureck. Tureck recorded both WTC books in 1953 for Decca, according to the website of the Tureck Bach Research Institute. These sets have wonderful “Mid-Century Modern”-style geometric art as their cover images.

This particular set is the second item I am offering from a collection of approximately 2,000 classical LPs in singles and boxed sets that has been donated to our community library. Other items to follow. If you have particular “wants” (especially opera boxes) please let me know. The collection dates back to the early 1950s and is long on European rarities—I will shortly put up as one bulk lot 15 European 10-inch LPs and two 45-rpm classical EPs!

As far as I can determine, the music lover who assembled this collection may have been a US armed-forces service member stationed in Europe after the Second World War.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover in doing research for this listing that demand for Tureck’s two WTC Decca LP boxed sets is robust. Popsike says the median/mean for Book 1 is $82/$95 and for Book 2 is $132/128.

This is a no-reserve auction for Book 1 and Book 2 TOGETHER.

NOTES ON CONDITION AND DISCOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

I am selling these sets to benefit the Knight Memorial Library in the North Elmwood neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. The Friends of Knight Memorial Library have an inventory of approximately 4,000 used books, etc. for sale. Individuals donated many items such as this one, and so they are not “ex-library.”

To restate, this is NOT an ex-library item; it does not have a card pocket, library stamps or embossings, or a discard stamp. This set is one of the absolute “picks of the litter” of a music collection of approximately 1,300 items.

Of course, these photos are of the actual sets for sale. Please examine the photos carefully. Most of these photos were taken before a helpful friend carefully washed the LPs with a VPI LP-cleaning machine.

I think these are in good shape for records that are approximately 50 years old that were owned by a music lover and not an LP collector. These LPs have been washed on a VPI record-washing machine and were put back in their original poly-lined inner sleeves. The set boxes will be put in heavy archival clear outer sleeves, as shown in the first photo. Note, a couple or three of the inner sleeves have dimples or small rips in the poly covering the label windows.

My friend who was so kind as to clean these LPs for the community library impartially graded the sets as:

WTC Book I: Vinyl VG+ / Cover VG+ (seam split/light signs of wear)

WTC Book II: Vinyl EX+/+/- (exception Side 4 VG+) / Cover EX

Dead-Wax-Area Scribes:

BOOK ONE:

Side 1:

Stamped: MG 2765T11 Scribed: R

With scribed || centered below