Piano music played on guitar!

[guitariari]

I am a guitarist who loves piano music.  Since it takes years of study to play repertoire pieces, I have been looking into transcriptions of piano music to guitar.  I joined this forum to solicit feedback from piansts on the quality of these transcriptions.  Do you feel like the guitar "does justice" to these pieces?  Here are my current favorite transcriptions of piano music to guitar:

Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) on Guitar.  Here I compare the Glenn Gould Recordings to the transcription by Jozsef Eotvos in 1997 (Eotvos himself is a huge GG fan).

Beethoven's Fur Elise on Guitar.  A much easier, classic piece

I think that most pianists will be surprised by the transcription of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on Guitar.  Perhaps it makes sense to think of transcribing the beautiful first movement.  But personally, once I first listened to the third movement I couldn't get it out of my head.  I did a lot of research trying to find transcriptions of that piece, and am happy to report that I found them!  (Both for guitar trio and solo guitar).

Please let me know what you think!

[minor9th]

Have you tried Hubert Kappel's transcription of Bach's 6th Partita BWV 830, Tilman Hoppstock's Toccata BWV 914, Philip Hii's Toccata and Fugue BWV 565 or Chromatic Fantasy BWV 903? All are several orders of magnitude more difficult for a guitarist than they are for a keyboardist! I love Eotvos' Goldbergs even though they are much slower than typical keyboard performances.

[Derek]

I have a cd by David Franzen....its a CD R though so I'm not sure if he's well known or not. He plays a bunch of baroque keyboard pieces on classical guitar. It's really really gorgeous. Classical guitar is one of those things that makes me want to live a thousand lifetimes. I think I'm really settled in as a pianist and it's my main instrument in this lifetime, but I'd love to go back and learn the classical guitar too. It's capable of things the piano just can't do in terms of variation of color (like picking at different places on the strings).  Picking strings inside the piano doesn't count, it never sounds good =D (not to mention monstrously awkward)  certainly not as good as on a classical guitar.

Playing my clavichord brings me as close as I can get I think to playing a classical guitar while remaining a keyboardist, but it still can't quite do what a classical guitar can.

In my opinion they more than do justice to these pieces. classical guitar rocks! I did play metal guitar for a while and toyed with some classical guitar stuff..its making me want to get one some day. I suffer from initial over enthusiasm for everything... 

[guitariari]

Thank you so much for this post!  It sounds like we are in both the same and opposite positions: In this lifetime I am settled in as a guitarist, though in my next life I hope to be a pianist!

[Derek]

Here's a really gorgeous harpsichord piece played on classical guitar. Mysterious Barricades by Francois Couperin: Mysterious Barricades. I adore this piece so much. Maybe some day I will get a classical guitar and just learn a few pieces using tablature.

[Derek]

Ok this isn't piano music on a guitar but it is still awesome: Andy McKee. Guitar sounds a lot better being used in ways it wasn't supposed to. I haven't yet heard anything on piano other than playing it as it was supposed to that moves me. Anything like plucking the strings, drumming on it, etc. just sounds childish to me. But slap and pluck and drum a guitar and it sounds awesome. Like this guy.

[minor9th]

Here is Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue:

  (all three sections are available)

[Derek]

That's awesome, thanks for the link.

[minor9th]

That's awesome, thanks for the link.

Indeed it is, and you're welcome! He has also transcribed Alban Berg's Piano Sonata  (He allowed me to make a personal use video of it a while back), and one of Bach's French Suites. He also plays Kazuhito Yamashita's transcription of Pictures at an Exhibition and Dvorak's 9th Symphony!! There isn't anything that he can't play, I'm sure.

[guitariari]

Have you tried Hubert Kappel's transcription of Bach's 6th Partita BWV 830, Tilman Hoppstock's Toccata BWV 914, Philip Hii's Toccata and Fugue BWV 565 or Chromatic Fantasy BWV 903? All are several orders of magnitude more difficult for a guitarist than they are for a keyboardist! I love Eotvos' Goldbergs even though they are much slower than typical keyboard performances.

Wow, it sounds like you might know more than me about this topic!  The only piece listed above that I am familiar with is Philip Hii's transcription of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.  I actually wrote a little article on it: J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565) on Classical Guitar - Music, Tab and Sheet Music.  As soon as I heard it I couldn't believe it, and went to the store to buy the sheet music for it.  Of course I can't play it all.  But let me tell you: playing the first few measures is a LOT of fun!  The fugue is divine: both on the organ and the guitar.  That's one of those pieces that I'd like to be able to play at some point in my lifetime. 

[guitariari]

Here's a really gorgeous harpsichord piece played on classical guitar. Mysterious Barricades by Francois Couperin: Mysterious Barricades. I adore this piece so much. Maybe some day I will get a classical guitar and just learn a few pieces using tablature.

That is one of my favorite Baroque pieces.  I have a CD where Christopher Parkening plays it.  I had no idea that it was originally for Harpsichord though!  If you like that piece, I recommend checking out that Parkening CD: https://www.amazon.com/Christopher-Parkening-plays-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B000002RNJ

[guitariari]

Here is Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue:

  (all three sections are available)

Yes, yes yes!  I really love that piece.  I have a CD of Wanda Landowska playing it.  Philip Hii also did a transcription of it (thought I like Jorge Caballero's recording better).  I wrote an article on this as well:  J.S. Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue on Classical Guitar - Music, Tab and Sheet Music.

[minor9th]

I vastly prefer Caballero's...it's more musical, doesn't drop some of the fugal entries, and his tone is superior. I've had the pleasure of watching him play it live twice, the second time he allowed me to videotape it! I sat in the front row about 6 feet away from him in a house concert, and let me tell you, that was one mind-blowing experience! He also played a 30 minute Weiss Suite and Alban Berg's Piano Sonata. I've never seen such effortless virtuosity before, especially in pieces that would not normally be considered playable on the guitar. To top it off, he is one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.

[minor9th]

Berg's Op. 1...

[ritchie6clayton]

Oh that was really marvelous... I never heard about such transcription of piano in guitar!
Will now definitely love to learn it. Was just wondering whether you use the same chords in guitar as that of piano or there is some kind of correlation between them?