# Favorite piano transcriptions



## leroy

what are some of your favorite piano transcriptions? I was just enjoying Busoni's "Chamber Fantasia on Bizet's Opera Carmen" as well as Andrei Schulz Evler's Concert Arabesque on Themes of "On The Blue Danube"


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## Cosmos

There are SO many piano transcriptions that I love...

The most notable for me are the *Bach-Busoni* transcriptions: Of other Bach arrangements I've heard, Busoni seems to be unique in that he both elaborates and adds his own style to some of the transcriptions, while also staying loyal to the music. The best ones IMO are the Chaconne, Prelude and Fugue in D major, Prelude and Fugue in Eb "St. Anne", Ich ruf zu dir..., and Wachet auf... Even though I'm not big on this next piece, Busoni's piano transc. of the Toccata and Fugue in d minor BWV 565 is pretty good


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## Mandryka

leroy said:


> what are some of your favorite piano transcriptions? I was just enjoying Busoni's "Chamber Fantasia on Bizet's Opera Carmen" as well as Andrei Schulz Evler's Concert Arabesque on Themes of "On The Blue Danube"


My own favourite romantic transcriptions are the Wagner/Gould Siegfried Idyll and Maestersinger. I also like Albeniz/Godowsky tango, the Wagner/Rudy transcriptions, the Berlioz/Liszt symphony, and maybe Rachmaninov/Nyireghazi symphony (or is it concerto? I can't remember.)

One pianist worth exploring for this sort of thing is Earl Wild, his Gershwin etudes. The release on Great Pianists is good, though ultimately the style is too cocktail bar for me. Ronald Stevenson too, the release called The Transcendental Tradition with his enormous Peter Grimes.

I'd be very interested to know what other posters make of Gershwin/Finnissy. I was disappointed, but if others have found something interesting there, I'll try again. Same for the Gould/Wagner Gotterdammerung and the Mahler-Cooke/Stevenson/White Symphony 10.


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## Lord Lance

Liszt's transcriptions: S. 383-577.


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## joen_cph

I tend to prefer the originals. There are some magical versions of _Prelude a l´Apres Midi ..._ on youtube, such as the historical one by George Copeland.

I´ve got a few recorded specialites, including

- _Winterreise_ in a solo piano version by Liszt, disappointingly recorded by Risalitti; 
- _Sacre_ (Atamian); 
- _Bartok´s Dance Suite_ (Gabos; I imagine Kocsis would be good); 
- _Liszt´s Ad Nos Fantasia _(Milne, quite good; the old analogue on Argo (or L´Oiseau Lyre?) is better than the later on Hyperion).
- _Boris Godunov-Suite _(Khudolei)


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## leroy

Mandryka said:


> One pianist worth exploring for this sort of thing is Earl Wild, his Gershwin etudes. The release on Great Pianists is good, though ultimately the style is too cocktail bar for me. Ronald Stevenson too, the release called The Transcendental Tradition with his enormous Peter Grimes.


I just ordered a copy of one of his transcription cd's , so I shall see.



Mandryka said:


> Rachmaninov/Nyireghazi symphony (or is it concerto?


 it's the second piano concerto



Mandryka said:


> I'd be very interested to know what other posters make of Gershwin/Finnissy. I was disappointed, but if others have found something interesting there, I'll try again. Same for the Gould/Wagner Gotterdammerung and the Mahler-Cooke/Stevenson/White Symphony 10.


Yea I wasn't impressed with Finnissy either, haven't tried the other 2 yet.

This was the cd, randomly acquired, that sent me down the transcription path initially, its excellent.


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## Heliogabo

Hundreds of piano transcriptions by Liszt are worth hearing; those that I know are very impressive.
I love the recording with piano transcriptions of Wagner by Glenn Gould.


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## Guest

Cosmos said:


> There are SO many piano transcriptions that I love...
> 
> The most notable for me are the *Bach-Busoni* transcriptions: Of other Bach arrangements I've heard, Busoni seems to be unique in that he both elaborates and adds his own style to some of the transcriptions, while also staying loyal to the music. The best ones IMO are the Chaconne, Prelude and Fugue in D major, Prelude and Fugue in Eb "St. Anne", Ich ruf zu dir..., and Wachet auf... Even though I'm not big on this next piece, Busoni's piano transc. of the Toccata and Fugue in d minor BWV 565 is pretty good


+1

I'm not sure this is a_ favorite_, exactly, but it is certainly hair-raising!


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## leroy

Ahha found this thread http://www.talkclassical.com/10091-piano-transcriptions.html could have sworn I did a search and didn't find this, but here it is.


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## aeschylus

The king of the transcription, for me, is Shura Cherkassky, with Horowitz not far behind. I like the Liszt opera transcriptions Verdi, Bellini, etc).

Wilhelm Kempff made recorded some of his own Bach transcriptions for DG late in his life. There are a couple of Naxos historical CDS of Bach piano transcriptions of all sorts.

My favourite of all is Samuil Feinberg on vol 3 of the Melodiya Russian Piano School; six rather quiet and unfeted Bach tracks, some recorded a few days before he died in 1962. It is among the most profound music making I have ever heard.


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## Albert7

Here you go with the main man.


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## Lord Lance

Albert7 said:


> Here you go with the main man.


Try Idil Biret. Much better. She seems like one of the finest Beethoven pianists along with the likes of Ashkenazy or Pollini.


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## Albert7

Lord Lance said:


> Try Idil Biret. Much better. She seems like one of the finest Beethoven pianists along with the likes of Ashkenazy or Pollini.


Thanks but no thanks. (Will hear the Biret version later on LOL...)

Gould is always the main man. Biret is good but where did you get the concept that she was more philosophically inveighed versus Gould?


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## Iain

leroy said:


> what are some of your favorite piano transcriptions? I was just enjoying Busoni's "Chamber Fantasia on Bizet's Opera Carmen" as well as Andrei Schulz Evler's Concert Arabesque on Themes of "On The Blue Danube"


I'm a Ravel aficionado, but at the top of my list are these three transcriptions of excerpts of Daphnis et Chloé:
http://www.ars-produktion.de/Ravel_...eiten/shop_art_id/439/tpl/shop_article_detail








Also, here's my review of the SA-CD:
http://www.sa-cd.net/showreviews/9354#10663


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## dwindladwayne

Cosmos said:


> There are SO many piano transcriptions that I love...
> 
> The most notable for me are the *Bach-Busoni* transcriptions: Of other Bach arrangements I've heard, Busoni seems to be unique in that he both elaborates and adds his own style to some of the transcriptions, while also staying loyal to the music. The best ones IMO are the Chaconne, Prelude and Fugue in D major, Prelude and Fugue in Eb "St. Anne", Ich ruf zu dir..., and Wachet auf... Even though I'm not big on this next piece, Busoni's piano transc. of the Toccata and Fugue in d minor BWV 565 is pretty good


I completely agree with you


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