Sun 14 August - Liszt Transcriptions

[french frank]

Sunday at 6pm:

"Stephen Johnson is joined by pianist Leslie Howard at the Birmingham International Piano Academy to uncover the musical nuances in some of Liszt's piano transcriptions.

Liszt was a celebrated virtuoso pianist and European superstar. His myriad piano transcriptions served a number of purposes. Some showed off his incredible technique, others were more easily playable by amateur musicians and so served to disseminate well-known pieces to a bigger audience. In others, there's a real sense that Liszt thought that the piano, as an instrument, actually had something different to bring to the original composition. He tackled Schubert songs, mammoth Beethoven symphonies, Wagnerian leitmotifs and Verdi grand operas, but none of his transcriptions are in any way a pastiche. All of them seem to carry a sense that Liszt cared deeply about the music and about the piano."

[Roehre]

Could be very interesting.

Comparing e.g. earlier (late 1830s) versions of Liszt's transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies with the later (1860s) ones, or the late 1830s versions of Schubert songs with those from the 1870s or even early 1880s, shows how Liszt's approach changed, how true he remained to the originals, as well as how meticulously he developed/changed his use of the piano to reproduce orchestral colouring.

But someone still needs to use 12 fingers in order to play it all

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Could be very interesting.

Comparing e.g. earlier (late 1830s) versions of Liszt's transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies with the later (1860s) ones, or the late 1830s versions of Schubert songs with those from the 1870s or even early 1880s, shows how Liszt's approach changed, how true he remained to the originals, as well as how meticulously he developed/changed his use of the piano to reproduce orchestral colouring.

But someone still needs to use 12 fingers in order to play it all

I remember feeling very proud when I learnt Schubert's Erlking accompaniment as a student, and played it several successive times as the official accompanist at a festival. But then I saw the Liszt transcription, and my pride turned to humility.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Tom Service on Liszt

[french frank]

The article may be a bit of a puff for tomorrow's Music Matters, but it does sound as if it will be an interesting programme - more music, less topicality. Like of which we don't get much

[Biffo]

Just listened to the Erlkonig transcription; Leslie Howard must have the requisite twelve fingers.