Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Piano transcriptions

Oh definitely. I love his Petrushka arrangement (well..the 3 excerpts of it). I don't know how much of this is down to the pianist, or the piece itself, but in Gilels' hands it springs to life with so much colour it's unbelievable.

Don't forget the Rigoletto Paraphrase. Is this a transritption? It is so beautiful!!!

No it's not a transcription, and I confess to not be a fan.

A 'paraphrase' is an original composition using themes from the work one is paraphrasing. Liszt's Operatic Fantasies and good examples of paraphrases.

Transcription means preserving the musical ideas. Liszt's Wagner Transcriptions are excellent examples.

I just love Liszt transcriptions. Turned the piano into a symphonic orchestra all by itself.

But despite our lovely intrument of choice's powerful range, dynamics and beautiful tone, I'd not exchange a full orchestra and its myriads timbres, colors, much greater range and dynamics for a piano transcription of symphonic works. They are amazing for what they are and as outstanding accomplishments, but you simply can't beat a symphonic orchestra.

The only time I prefer Liszt's Bethoven transcriptions to the originals is when all I have is MIDI: the piano sounds a lot better than orchestral attempts...

That said, you could checkout some Liszt's transcriptions in MIDI at http://kunstderfuge.com/liszt.htm#Transcriptions or similar places, if you don't have access to recordings of them. Be sure to have a good MIDI player and soundfonts, though...

I like Rossini's William Tell Overture-Liszt transcription, it's fun to play.

To this listener Katsaris Beethoven-Liszt Symphonies still holds the top spot. I listened to the whole thing many years ago. I do not own this set yet. I'm waiting for the opportunity coming my way in the future. It just may. The current price does not justify for me because I already have the other two sets mentioned.

If you can, listen to Katsaris' recording. That's outstanding. Just my .02c.

Oh, btw, Wagner-Liszt "Tannhauser" Overture is the most symphonic of all the maestro's transcriptions, JMO. I listened to the recordings I could lay my hands on and find Michael Ponti presented the 'monstrosity' beyond words of description. After the music was over I still sat there could not move...

I agree that the most engaging Liszt transcriptions are the Schubert songs. I own Leslie Howard's complete set. I never finished listening to the whole set because his playing in some way bored me. On the other hand I turned again and again to the two volumes put out on Naxos Complete Liszt Piano Music. They are Vol.5 and Vol.17 - Schubert/Liszt song transcriptions.

Vol. 5 is played by Oxana Yablonskaya
Vol.17 is played by Valerie Tryon

Both are excellent and really SING! Yablonskaya is especially gratifying to this pair of ears. I have numerous individual ones played by various artists. Lazar Berman once again fit the bill exceedingly well while F. Chiu sounds to me not that convincing at all.

Sorry for the ramble.

By your definition, the Rigoletto Paraphrase is indeed a transcription. The musical ideas are certainly preserved. Four voices and orchestra arranged for piano. Liszt adds an introduction and coda, makes a slight change in the opening tenor line, then with vast embellishment generally transcribes the quartet along the lines Verdi wrote it, even down to reproducing the string parts. Do you know the original?

A good example of a Verdi "paraphrase" would be Liszt's take on Simon Boccanegra. Indeed, he uses the word "Reminiscenses" as he does with Norma.

And one of the most difficult, according to a well known concert pianist whom I asked. I would never attempt it...

Liszt confines himself to the "Dresden" version of the overture, which makes a better stand-alone than the later "Paris" version.

There are a lot of great paraphrases and showpiece transcriptions, but I don't think anything stands beside the Liszt Beethoven Symphonies. Glenn Gould's recording of the Liszt-Beethoven 5th is the second best recording of the symphony next only to the great Szell Cleveland Orchestra recording from the 60s (IMHO)

Mike

My teacher (no mean technician, he played Islamey quite well) said he would have played the Berlioz/Liszt only if he had had as much technique in his left hand as most pianists had in both. Bravo if you can really bring it off well! I heard Holst's Planets just a few weeks ago in its original two piano version, stunningly played on a pair of Faziolis by Michael Boyd and Joel Schoenhals (every planet except the one with the chorus). Could that really be condensed into two hands? The pair did the Rite of Spring in the same recital.

And that Eine Kleine Nachtmusik transcription really is masterful.

I'm very partial to the opera paraphrases, and play "Reminiscences of Norma", "Faust", and "Eugene Onegin". The "Rigoletto" paraphrase is the only one I've performed - too bad dnephi doesn't like it.

Well, he obviously hasn't heard you play it!

I first heard this one by Jorge Bolet and I was simply amazed. The CD is now lost

I think I also read some story(in an attempt to illustrate its difficulty) about how Liszt himself had to once take a break midway during the piece. I don't know if that's true or not. Great piece anyways.

Oh, the Tannhauser overture is incredible - on the Cziffra EMI Classics DVD there's a video of Benno Moiseiwitsch playing this piece with such ease it almost makes you wonder what's so hard about it. Stunning performance, all in a single take from one camera that gradually zooms in to the keyboard - it's worth buying the DVD for this alone.

Katsaris good - Howard bad. Got it.

The midi resource is useful, thanks.

The Mozart transcription---I wish I could hear it (not with this old calculator machine).

Some Stravinsky transcription plays for a while on the foreground and background of the Brendel documentary; I recall liking it.

I just read somewhere that according to Sorabji, "the peak of Godowsky's attainment was reached in these six (Bach) transcriptions." Well, not somewhere, but here: http://www.godowsky.com/Biography/bio.html

JBiegel,
What do you think of the Beethoven-Liszt 7th Symphony transcription?

Sophia

My favorite is Dame Myra Hess's transcription of Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" (for piano).