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Welcome to the Piano Transcriptions Themed Recital. Links to the recordings are in the posts following this one. Please refrain from commentary in this thread. Take any and all comments to the General Discussion Thread for this recital.
Thank you!
In addition to the recordings below, and the zip files linked below, we have an online streaming player. Just click on the link to hear all the recital pieces without having to download the zip files:
Recorded using the Boesendorfer VC280 virtual piano from VSL
Technical feedback wanted:
No
Additional info:
The first transcription I used was too difficult. After the first page there is a lot of awkward arpeggiation in the left hand which I struggled to get right. I realised I was never going to make it for this recital and found a simpler transcription. The first page is almost identical as the first transcription but keeps things easier. I will possibly come back to the harder transcription one day and give that a go.
I feel the selected virtual piano for recording my playing works well for this piece. I still am not happy with my playing at some points, but could not seem to fix the issues I had with them. I tried a recording with reverb to disguise the technical problems but that took something away from the overall feel of the piece.
Piazzolla's instrument was the Bandoneon, or button accordion - a concertina-like instrument with buttons instead of a keyboard. The sound is made by air causing a metal reed to vibrate. It sounds very complicated to play!
His music is so popular that there are plenty of transcriptions for just about every combination of instruments. But the clarinet seems very well suited. It is, after all, also a reed instrument. This piece requires long sustained tones, which the piano is very bad at, and the clarinet is very good at. So the piano provides chords and rhythm, and the clarinet floats above.
Sauter upright with retrofit silencer plus Galaxy Vintage D
Recording method:
MIDI-out to Galaxy Vintage D, Kontakt Player plus Savihost plugin
Technical feedback wanted:
Yes
Additional info:
Some years ago, I heard the intermezzo from the romantic opera "Notre Dame" by Franz Schmidt on the radio and found it so captivating that I wanted to play it myself and searched the internet for a piano transcription. If found this one by John Gribben on the IMSLP. The result is at least acceptable, I think, the only problem lies in the fact that a piano cannot hold notes as long as strings can. So I had to play it a bit faster. The opera is based on the novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo, and this intermezzo is said to describe the main character, the gypsy woman Esmeralda.
One of my favourite interpretations of the original orchestral version is the one by Paavo Jarvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphonic Orchestra. Isn't this the most beautiful gypsy music?
Sauter upright with retrofit silencer plus Galaxy Vintage D
Recording method:
MIDI-out to Galaxy Vintage D, Kontakt Player plus Savihost plugin
Technical feedback wanted:
Yes
Additional info:
I always wanted to play the theme from the French movie "Fantomas se dechaine" ("Fantomas is breaking free") from 1964. The movie itself is a somewhat childish story of a journalist and his fiancee fighting against an evil criminal who endeavours to rule the world. But I remember that I was mad about that movie when I first saw it on TV at the age of 12. I still like the music by the French movie composer Michel Magne today. Sheet music of the score is non-existent, all that was left was destroyed when the composer's home caught fire some decades ago. So I recreated the music from listening to the original film soundtrack and adjusted the chords to what should sound nice on the piano. You can listen to the original film soundtrack here:
This is my own solo piano arrangement of the rock song Space Oddity by David Bowie originally released in 1969 just a few days before the launch of Apollo 11. The song has come to be associated with space exploration. Astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded a viral performance on the International Space Station in 2013. And the sound system of the Tesla Roaster launched into space in 2018 for the SpaceX Falcon Heavy test flight also played the song.
This is something I've been noodling around with for a few years and finally decided to cap it off into a complete piece. It's nothing fancy. Just chords and arpeggios in the left hand and mostly melody in the right hand with the occasional change of register. And then there are the claps which you will probably notice.
There is a little story behind the claps, if you have a moment. The first time I ever heard the song was when I was in high school. I was in the weight room with some members of the track and field team and the song was playing on the stereo. No one was talking. Everyone was going about their business of lifting weights and spotting others. Then when the interlude between the chorus and the 2nd verse came up several people, without cue, clapped in sync with the claps in the music. It is one of the most unexpectedly spontaneous little bits of music making I have ever experienced. To pay homage to that moment, I have recorded and dubbed in a few claps of my own into the performance.
Gabriel Faure originally wrote the Pavane as a solo piano piece in 1887, but he orchestrated it the following year with chorus, at the behest of a Spanish queen who presided over a gala celebration. Over the years, the haunting melodic and harmonic contours have served to make the Pavane one of Faure's best known works. Robin de Smet is in general a transcriber of popular works from the Classical literature for wind instruments and piano, but in this case transcribed what was probably Faure's orchestral version for solo piano.
Faure originally wrote the Sicilienne in 1892 as a musical adjunct to a play that was never presented. He then recast the piece for cello and piano in 1897, and also incorporated it into his score for Pelleas and Melisande, in orchestral dress. Like the Pavane, this piece proved immensely popular with the listening public, and is among Faure's most popular works. Again, Robin de Smet was the transcriber responsible for a solo piano version, derived from the orchestral version.
John Jacob Niles was an American composer, known predominantly as a troubador for Appalaichan folk music. In general, the lyric tends towards sadness and tragedy, of which this is a good example: "Oh, she'll take off the black dressk And put on the green For she is forsaken and only nineteen..". In this song, though, after absorbing this tale of woe, you get a surprise: "Take warning, take warning, young ladies pray do For you are quite lucky that this is not you." What I sought to do in this transcription was capture the humor in the final verse -- more generally, follow the emotional contours of the lyric in each verse with a musical equivalent.
Besides performing traditional American folk music, Niles as composer did compile a sizable body of works. His last major effort was the Niles-Merton Song Cycle, completed in 1972. Thomas Merton was a well known Roman Catholic theologian, poet and philosopher from Kentucky; and Niles, a great admirer of Merton, took it upon himself to set a number of Merton's early poems to music. This music is more ethereal in nature, and I sought to apply some clusters as background wash to the proceedings. The music and poetry both are beautiful, and I feel the need to share Merton's poem:
Now in the middle of the limpid evening, The moon speaks clearly to the hill. The wheatfields make their simple music, Praise the quiet sky, And down the road, the way the stars come home, The cries of children Play on the empty air, a mile or more, And fall on our deserted hearing, Clear as water, water.
They say that the sky is made of glass, They say the smiling moon's a bride. They say.
They say they love the orchaards and apple trees, The trees, their innocent sisters, dressed in blossoms, Still wearing, in the blurring dusk, White dresses from that morning's first communion.
And, where blue heaven's fading fire last shines, They name the new-come planets With words that flower On little voices, light as stems of lilies, stems of lilies.
And where blue heaven's fading fire last shines, Reflected in the poplar's ripple,
One little, wakeful bird, Sings like a shower, lttle wakeful bird
Trad. arr. Jack Marshall and Christopher Parkening
Duration:
02:48
Source of music:
Sheet music
Instrument used:
Digital piano, Yamaha CLP-635
Recording method:
digital to USB to PC
Technical feedback wanted:
Yes
Additional info:
This piece is out of a classical guitar book and written in treble clef. I figured out which notes I'd play with each hand and voila!, it became a piano piece. I'm pretty sure I've seen free piano sheet music arrangements on the internet that look similar to what I came up with.
The Passacaglia in C Minor is a relatively early work of Bach (he was 25 - 30 years of age). Its origins are unclear, but it has proven over the years to be one of Bach's most compelling compositions, one that has been transcribed for many different instrumental combinations. The piece is divided into two main sections: a set of 20 variations on a "ground" introduced by the pedals, and then a double fugue, one subject of which is the ground against two other countersubjects. For me, the progression to the triumphal ending is tremendously exciting -- I can certainly understand what all the shouting is about!
Passacaglia in C minor Part 1 (Variations)/arranged Fazil Say
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Duration:
10:13
Source of music:
Sheet Music Schott Publishing
Instrument used:
Kawai 5.5' Baby Grand
Recording method:
TASCAM40 320 Mb
Technical feedback wanted:
Yes
Additional info:
Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor is a relatively early work that is generally considered to be one of Bach's best efforts. It has been transcribed from the original organ sheet music into many different instrumental combinations. This solo piano realization is the effort of concert pianist Fazil Say. The piece is so long that I had to divide it into two parts -- one devoted to the variation; the other to trhe extensive double fugue, which also serves as the final variation. IMO, a fantastic piece -- please listen to both "halves" to get the full effect.
I have always enjoyed listening to Edvard Grieg's compositions - they feel jovial yet somber, lighthearted yet pensive. I don't know how and why... A few months ago, I came across this arrangement by Jennifer Eklund of his Piano Concerto in A minor, and I thought it would be great for this themed recital. It quickly became a favorite piece in my household, and my husband enjoyed listening to its development over a few months. I think Jeniffer Eklund did an excellent job making this piece approachable to beginners.
I'm using the score from Pianist Magazine issue 117. This was composed by Arcangelo Corelli, a virtuoso violinist from Italy. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing any info regarding who arranged this.
So I got a little over enthusiastic last time, and then I signed up to play this. I dont know why you should hear this from me, you can get it from the best pianists in the world for free all over the internet. First I had to relearn it, but that took only two weeks, after that I tried to play it better, but I have the impression it has only gotten worse, I find new problems all the time.
When I first heard it I very much liked the version you find surfing the internet by Horowitz (the one with the church bells). But then I found the version by Khatia Buniatishvili (the one with the coins falling) , and thought that was very beautiful. Slow, sad and meditative, with a very steady beat all through. Looked like Horowitz was playing much too fast. All other renditions I could find seemed less interesting, more in between.
But after a while I got bored and even annoyed by the Khatia version, all that sadness. Started to like Horowitz again, just sit down and play style, much more singing, after all it is a song transcription.
But I cant play as fast and effortless as Horowitz or as sad and controlled as Khatia. In the end it is my personal take and style on it, the way I like it today, with all my imperfections and limitations.
I am trying to get it singing, not overly sad, and not overly smooth either (I like this bit of staccato beginning by Horowitz). But it is so terribly difficult to get right: to get the left hand chords even, to get the right voicings in the right hand, to get some kind of gentle even touch with both hands entangled, and still get the melody, etc.. still a million things to get right.
Luckily I read it is not supposed to be perfect, so, here it goes .....
2016 Bluethner Model A. Tuning by myself using PianoMeter
Recording method:
Zoom H4n with matched pair of Neumann KM184 small condenser microphones. No processing.
Technical feedback wanted:
Yes
Additional info:
Edward Elgar 1821 to 1906. He wrote this piece for his fiancee. His alternative name for it was 'Greeting to Love'. Originally for violin and piano in E major. First performance was in London in 1889. When I was 13 this was the first piece of classical music I was interested in. It was played by my church organist and it moved me to tears then and still does now 61 years later.
The second portion of An American in Paris starts with the "big" theme -- a Blues-based Romantic theme similar in nature to Rhapsody in Blue. It morphs into a climactic cadenza, and then shifts to a Charleston-like dance, totally American in "feel". There is a then a short reprise back to the original "walking theme", leading to the victorious conclusion that brings back other themes from the score. A fun transcription, loaded with color!
Gershwin composed this tone poem in 1928 -- probably it was a followup to his highly popular Rhapsody in Blue, a unique synthesis of Classical and Jazz elements. Bill Daly was a major figure in Gershwin's musical life, serving as technical assistant, particularly in orchestration. The entire score is too long for 20 Mb, and so I divided it into parts 1 and 2. Part 1 contains all the music up to the main Blues theme that serves as the centerpiece of the score.
