On this edition of Reflections from the Keyboard, David Dubal digs deeper to unpack several more operatic transcriptions for the piano.
Some pianists know a good opera when they hear it and jump on the chance to transcribe it to the keyboard. The ones successful at it have written resourceful paraphrases, sensitive to vocal tessitura, striving to give the translated fragments a sense of nostalgia.
Gliding in and out of orchestrations, these transcriptions highlight some underplayed paraphrases and transcriptions of melodies from a few known as well as unknown operas. These interpretations allow the hands to saunter and ramble, or carry note-for-note melodic lines around the keyboard.
Among the examples heard today are versions by Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Henri Herz and others.
Playlist
Gaetano Donizetti/Franz Liszt:
Réminiscences de "Lucia di Lammermoor"
Jorge Bolet
Philips
Percy Grainger/Richard Strauss:
Ramble on the last love-duet from Der Rosenkavalier
William Chen
Hurstwood Farm Music
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov/Rachmaninoff:
The Flight of the Bumblebee
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Philips
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov/Rachmaninoff:
The Flight of the Bumblebee
Earl Wild
Philips
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov/Rachmaninoff:
The Flight of the Bumblebee
Jorge Bolet
Philips
Gioachino Rossini/Henri Herz:
Variations on "Non piu mesta" from La Cenerentola
Earl Wild
Philips
Giovanni Sgambati/Christoph Willibald Gluck:
Melody from Gluck's Orfeo
David Dubal
ArchivMusic
Franz Liszt/Gaetano Donizetti:
Valse de Concert sur deux motifs de "Lucia et Parisina"
Louis Kentner
Vox Legends
Moriz Rosenthal/Johan Strauss:
Carnaval de Vienne (Humoresque on Themes by Strauss)
Stanley Waldoff
ArchivMusic