Operatic transcriptions recital; second half

[ronde_des_sylphes]

From this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe:

Wagner-Liszt Fantasy on themes from Rienzi

 
Wagner-Liszt Abendstern, from Tannhauser

Meyerbeer-Pixis Caprice on Robert le Diable

Wagner-Liszt Isolde's Liebestod

My composition: pastiche on Liszt and Thalberg-style operatic fantasies

Feel free to comment. The B sticks in during the tremolando at 3.00 in the Liebestod! Ouch!

[thalbergmad]

I just had to listen to the Pixis first and wow, what a performance.

You would not have been out of place in 1830's Paris old chap.

Great piece and played with sparkle aplomb. How many pianists are including Pixis in their performances?

Probably none, but hopefully more now.

Massive congrats.

Thal

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I just had to listen to the Pixis first and wow, what a performance.

You would not have been out of place in 1830's Paris old chap.

Great piece and played with sparkle aplomb. How many pianists are including Pixis in their performances?

Probably none, but hopefully more now.

Massive congrats.

Thal

Thanks.

I just knew you would go straight to the Pixis.  My passagework was a little untidy in a few places, but it went down very well indeed with the audience - it's definitely going to get another outing in the future. I think it's a very appealing piece with a lot of joie de vivre.

[jabbz]

Love the Pixis! Absolutely lovely. Whats the difficulty like to sightread/technique?

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Love the Pixis! Absolutely lovely. Whats the difficulty like to sightread/technique?

I found it harder than I had initially expected. Some passages are pretty straightforward, but there are also tricky bits of fingerwork (broken tenths in the left hand at one point) and it will certainly give your octaves a good work-out.

[jabbz]

Lovely, I'm definitely going to give it a look over.

[thalbergmad]

Perhaps the day will come when Pixis is again heard in our concert halls.

Thal

[rachfan]

Hi ronde,

Nice job!  I particularly enjoyed the Liszt "Liebestod", one of my favorites.  You seem to have a limitless capacity for learning new repertoire.  In fact, you seem to devour it whole!  People here have commented on the extent of my repertoire, which I believe is really nothing to write home about, especially where I have so little practice time.  But your list is enormous by any standard.   First, I imagine you must have an extraordinary sight-reading capability.  Secondly, I would guess you must have very adequate practice time to focus on and accomplish pieces to the point where they are not only playable, but presentable too.  Beyond that, I don't know how in the world you do it.  You probably have enough for at least five or six programs by now.  At some point, I believe you'll have the luxury of sorting through and hand-picking the music that you like best, and then capitalizing mostly on that portion of your repertoire.  Certainly your 'Nuit d'ete" of Liapunov (from a prior posting) that you play so well would have to be one of those gems.  Anyway, it's not often that one gets to hear all of these operatic transcriptions.  Congratulations on a fine effort! 

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Thanks, rachfan. I'm especially happy you enjoyed the Liebestod, as not only is it my alltime favourite transcription, I think my playing was best in it and my own piece which concluded the recital.

I consider myself a pretty decent sightreader, which certainly helps with speedy learning - sometimes it also promotes sloppy learning, I'm sorry to say. I don't normally get as much time to practice as I'd like, but I did put in a fair amount of preparation (and thought) for this recital. Certainly, it helps when you've "lived" with some of the pieces for a good while and your ideas regarding them are more fully formed than when you have only played them for a few months.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Here is an mp3 of the Pixis. Sorry, not the best sound quality in the world; it's extracted from the camcorder footage, but it might be better than youtube sound, which can degrade during the conversion process.