Fantasy on La Sonnambula (Bellini)

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I had been intending to learn the Thalberg paraphrase - the Liszt version is very difficult and to be honest, I prefer the Thalberg - but in the process I got sidetracked and started improvising on Bellini's themes.

Anyway, this is my own composition and is what happened after I tidied up the improvisation(s) into a more organised form. Very much in the style of Liszt and Thalberg (5.22 to 6.12 is pure Thalberg, but Liszt wasn't above stealing Thalberg's most notorious pianistic concept, either )

From a compositional viewpoint, I found it interesting that I spent much more time trying to get transitions convincing, rather than writing the individual variations, which came naturally via improvisation.

Video:

Audio attached below.

[thalbergmad]

Bloody brilliant, but i would like to hear the complete Thalberg treatment of this.

His transition form cantabile to three hands is beyond beauty, albeit the meoldy is of course Bellini's.

Thal

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I definitely intend to play the Thalberg paraphrase publicly at some point - it is really rather well-written and sadly I can't imagine many people being willing to perform it.

[rachfan]

Hi ronde,

Wow!  What a treat hearing your improvisations on themes of Bellini.  And your composition requires much virtuosity too.  It's certainly an impressive accomplishment, and I hope many here will play your video and enjoy it as much as I did.  Bravo!

[pianistimo]

really great.  added interest for those who don't know - la sonnambula is about a lady who sleepwalks.  i loved the sleepwalking sound of some of this - it's really dreamy.  some guy by the name of romano or romani wrote the libretto.

if you think you're confused by the libretto - try reading this exerpt which mentions jenny lind playing the part of amina:  https://www.abacci.com/annotated/ebook.aspx?bookID=1700&pagenumber=18

i believe this is the same friedrich wieck who was the father of clara schumann.  now, you can see a little similarity between his fantasizing and schumann's and why clara would be drawn to schumann.  why didn't wieck like schumann?  too old for his daughter at the time or something?  i never 'got it.'  i think they are very similar in this writing sense.