Thal, I hope you don't feel we are abusing your generosity. Tausig?

[iumonito]

Do you have any favorites?

Gypsy Airs, Schumann's Kontrabandiste, or the Beethoven quartets sounds interesting.

[thalbergmad]

Haha, you have indeed picked one of my fave reasonably forgotten composers.

[thalbergmad]

Da rest of the Beethoven

[thalbergmad]

I love tausig to bits and do not understand his neglect. Some of his Operatic transcriptions are superior to Liszts and his Gipsy Airs is as good as any of Listzs Rhapsody's.

The only pieces i don't really like are his versions of Bach's Toccata and Schubert's Miltiary March. This is strange as these seem to be the only ones that occasionally get a hearing.

My absolute fave is his transcription of Weber's invitation to the dance. I could not survive if i did not listen to it at least once a day. His version of Chopin's Concerto in E minor is more than enough to severely irriate the "purists".

Thal

[iumonito]

Brilliant.  This is quite stimmulating.

Funny you mention the purists, being that at some point (he later came around) Huneker had "Niagaras of abuse" for poor Godowsky's treatment of some Chopin.  (Alistar, please allow me the quote from Sorabji, I mean it in the fairest use you can imagine, )  Huneker seems quite endorsy here.

The oblivion you can blame on the Schnabel-Serkin conspiracy and the Urtext generation.  But worry not, the Neu Davidsbundler is alive and well, carrying the secret flame of Bolet & Co.

[jre58591]

i thought id contribute another tausig. its an arrangement, actually.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Here is some more Tausig.

Das Geisterschiff - famous for its "chromatic glissando", and the Fantasy on Moniuszko's Halka, which is great fun.

[ahinton]

Funny you mention the purists, being that at some point (he later came around) Huneker had "Niagaras of abuse" for poor Godowsky's treatment of some Chopin.  (Alistar, please allow me the quote from Sorabji, I mean it in the fairest use you can imagine,)

Of course you can use it and it's perfectly fair to do so! The only thing I would say is that it might be of more interest to readers if you identify the source of the phrase - as in "Huneker had what Sorabji called "Niagaras of abuse" - etc. (I realise that, in you bracketed aside to me you have indeed done so - but I think you understand what I mean).

Best,

Alistair

[dabbler]

Just listened to the Invitation to the Dance transcription (Moiseiwitsch on the Naxos Great Pianists). Absolutely charming! Unfortunately sounds/looks too hard for me to play :-(   Still, I had always dismissed those 19th century transcriptions as not worth listening or playing (well, without actually knowing any of them) and now I tend to think more and more that I was wrong. In any case, good motivation to try to get to know more of them. This kind of discoveries is one of the main reasons I enjoy this forum so much...

[thalbergmad]

Just listened to the Invitation to the Dance transcription (Moiseiwitsch on the Naxos Great Pianists). Absolutely charming! Unfortunately sounds/looks too hard for me to play :-(   Still, I had always dismissed those 19th century transcriptions as not worth listening or playing (well, without actually knowing any of them) and now I tend to think more and more that I was wrong. In any case, good motivation to try to get to know more of them. This kind of discoveries is one of the main reasons I enjoy this forum so much...

I am so glad you enjoyed it, i love it. There are a couple of other recordings but the old one by Moiseiwitsch is the best and also the fastest by far (albeit it is slightly cut). The way he plays it certainly makes it appear harder than it actually is. I can actually play this myself whilst i failed miserably to play Tausigs "Halka" variations.

19th century transcriptions seem to have been out of fashion for a long time. A previous teacher of mine turned his nose up at the lot of them and dismissed them all as unworthy. I guess that people like him turned generations of pianists away from this fascinating genre. There are undoubtedly some bad and pretty awful ones but the voyage of discovery is worth it, especially when the odd gem turns up.

Thal

[dabbler]

19th century transcriptions seem to have been out of fashion for a long time. A previous teacher of mine turned his nose up at the lot of them and dismissed them all as unworthy. I guess that people like him turned generations of pianists away from this fascinating genre.

That's exactly what happened with me, and I believed it until recently... Anyway, better late than never :-)