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Does anyone have a piano transcription of the Vocalise they would recommend? I also have one, but it is the very difficult one by Kocsis that I really cannot play (except for page 1).

I would love to find one that is just a little bit easier to play if you know what I mean. I can play some things marked advanced, but not all by a long shot. Any recommendations?

Bill Finn :

There was recently some discussion in this Forum of some of the transcriptions of the Vocalise; check the archives for it.

I have the transcription by Robert Schultz, © 1991, Beam Me Up Music, Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., and also a Russian transcription which was linked in the recent discussion. I don't know who the transcriber is because the text is in Russian, and I can't transliterate from the Cyrillic alphabet.

I have not seen the Kocsis arrangement, so I don't know how these compare in difficulty.

Regards,

Hi, BruceD. Well, I did try to search for the word Vocalise and nothing came back. Sorry about that. Rachmaninoff would perhaps have given me more threads than I wanted. ;-)

Earl Wild's wonderful arrangement can be ordered through his web site. I wouldn't think this is much easier (if at all) than the Kocsis version, but at least you don't have to contend with those loopy right-hand arpeggios.

I have played the wonderful arrangement by Alan Richardson, but it is not easy.

Here are a couple of the threads about the Vocalise on Pianoworld:

web page

web page

[Deleted.]

I just posted that link.

Appy-pologies!

"A little easier" would be the Arkady Chubrik transcription that I posted in the earlier thread.

"Much easier that Kocsis" would be Fiorentino's transcription.


Mel

But IMHO one of the most beautiful. You can listen to it here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=q30JUz8jn9E

and get it free by signing up at the Fiorentino group at Yahoo.

Yes, I also think Fiorentino's transcription is the most beautiful.

(The orchestral version with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy is also amazing!)

Bruce, if you can take a picture of the first page with the cyrilic, I can read it (and understand).

It's Arkady Chubrik's version.


Mel

dannylux (Mel)

Thanks. It is the Chubrik version.

Regards,

I am quite partial to the Richardson transcription (OK, it's the only one I own and play), especially the way the melody is treated differently in the repeated sections. He is quite free with with voicings and accompaniment figures, but thanks to the general lack of arpeggio or scale pyrotechnical decorations, he stays quite faithful IMO to what the composer himself might have done with a purely piano version. It does have some big stretches and rolled chords that are occasionally a bit of a challenge.

Coincidentally my son is currently learning the version for double bass, for which I have accompanied him a few times. I would imagine it is perhaps more manageable on scordatura/solo tuned instrument, than with the orchestral tuned bass he uses, as the tessitura is exceptionally high.., though it's starting to come together, it is still very much a work-in-progress!

Michael B.

Thanks for all the excellent recommendations. I tried to locate some of them, but (at least for now) I have ended up with the Robert Schultz transcription (mostly because it was easly available) and it at least appears doable for me.

It's best sung. And it's not very hard. All you have to do is listen.

Anna Moffo, a soprano of the 50s and 60s, does a wonderful job.

Or, you could learn how to sing.

Tomasino

Moi? Sing? You haven't heard my voice. ;-) Yes Anna Moffo and Leopold Stokowski produced the finest recording of Vocalise I have yet heard. It is wonderful indeed.

I'm familiar with the Rachmaninoff and Wild transcriptions of the Vocalise. The challenge in attempting a transcription of this song is that the voice sings a cantelena that has many very sustained moments. In imitating that, the violin, flute or organ would be successful. The problem with the piano, of course, is that it's a percussive instrument with a relatively fast tone decay. While the classical pianist creates the illusion of a singer's phrasing to an extent, it is still a compromise at best.

By the way Tomasino mentions Anna Moffo--she was THE BEST!!! I agree, if you listen to her singing, you'll learn much about playing the piano. Bottom line though, I'm not sure that any transcription could ever adequately capture and do complete justice to the Vocalise. Just my opinion.