Two paraphrases from Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable

[ronde_des_sylphes]

From a recital last night.

Firstly (for Thal), Kullak's transcription of the cavatine. Sorry about the rh glitch at 1.20 Trying to play the double notes too quietly. I'm probably playing this again in a recital at the end of the week, so any thoughts are very welcome.

Secondly, the closing item of the concert, my own paraphrase on the Valse Infernale and other themes. Hard to resist Liszt's influence here but there's plenty of my own ideas too.

[thalbergmad]

Bravo a million times. A style of playing from a bygone age and you keep getting better each time.

One can be almost certain that nobody else is playing Kullak transcriptions, but i wager others might well try some now.

Pure delight and fun. Schumann would have loved this.

Well done sir.

Thal

[lostinidlewonder]

Anytime I see a recording uploaded by ronde I download it without even reading what the content is. Never a disappointment!

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Thanks, both of you. I have some things I want to change in the Kullak and I'll see how that turns out. Did have a little chuckle at the Schumann comment.

[rachfan]

Hi ronde,

Bravo!!  Although I very much enjoyed the Kullak transcription, I was totally bowled over by your own paraphrase on the "Valse Infernale".  Absolutely superb!  I doubt that you and Liszt together could improve upon that! 

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Liszt's paraphrase is much more compositionally sophisticated (and the Earl Wild recording surely one of the pinnacles of the genre) but I did have great fun working out ways to fit a variety of technical devices into the texture.

I played both of these pieces again at another concert a week later.

Video of the Kullak:

Video of my paraphrase: