Virtuoso Transcriptions

[pianistcellist]

What is your favorite? Do you have any in your rep? Would you play them for competitions?

[liszt1022]

As a huge Liszt guy, I'm a fan of his transcriptions. His Saint-Saens Danse Macabre is super-great. I'm not a fan of Horowitz's reworking of it, though.

Uh... the Cziffra Bumblebee is trendy these days, but so far out of my reach I can't comment too far on it.

Liszt's 6th symphony transcription was a favorite of Liszt himself, he would perform movements 3-4-5 in concerts as a set.

More Liszt... Berlioz March to the Scaffold, Wagner Tannhauser, Schubert Erlkoenig, Mozart Don Juan, Gounod's Faust waltz, Paganini etude 6

Schulz-Evler's Blue Danube transcription is pretty showy, but too long. Either skip the repeats or trim it a bit.

There are plenty of introverted, beautiful transcriptions, but I'm thinking of ones that are closer to "virtuoso" in the flashy sense.

[redbaron]

Sibelius - Finlandia

Actually a lot better than the original orchestral version in my opinion.

[pianoplayjl]

Anything by Liszt, Cziffra and Horowtiz is good for me.