Beethoven-Liszt Symphony no. 3 Eroica

[furtwaengler]

https://app.box.com/s/j2sizh8ksbgr23cbz6jqohi7ast6cy2h

Live performance of April 21, 2017. This was part of a personal celebration of a 10 year relationship with this school as a collaborative pianist. My first semi solo recital there featured Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata and Beethoven’s op. 111, so it’s nice to bookend the time with Beethoven of another sort (and the cellist was in the audience). The Eroica on the piano as transcribed by Franz Liszt, along with some of my own emendations and some spontaneous “extra right notes” - I am a provincial orchestra; I’ve never been to the Proms. Working on this I believe I picked up something of Beethoven’s personality at the piano even in his orchestral writing...parts of the last movement are technically very similar the challenges of the Hammerklavier fugue.   

Ah well, the struggle is real and it ought to continue, I plan on continuing to learn and perfect this beast and perhaps look towards a cycle of the 9, haha!

(I've extracted "I've been workin on the railroad" if people want to go straight to that.)

[ronde_des_sylphes]

You're to be congratulated on this achievement - to learn any of these transcriptions is a colossal undertaking. Good performance too, and any blemishes aren't really that significant. The problems with this arrangement go beyond the merely technical; the piano is being pushed to the very limits of its expressive capacity and tbh I'm not sure that the timbral limitations aren't all too apparent. I believe that the Katsaris recordings of the set are one of the crowning glories of recorded piano history. I was pleased to hear that you had an appreciative audience.

[furtwaengler]

Thanks for listening and commenting. Of course there are limitations, but I still love orchestral transcriptions. It's a different view of the structure and shows a different color of Beethoven's genius (black and white). Katsaris  is quite an achievement, although parts of the 3rd and the 9th at least have some obvious additions stacked on in such a way that it may as well be a two piano arrangement. But of course that brings another element and precision to collaborate with himself using the best of recorded technology.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Thanks for listening and commenting. Of course there are limitations, but I still love orchestral transcriptions. It's a different view of the structure and shows a different color of Beethoven's genius (black and white).

I suspect the piano isn't quite sonorous enough in your recording for maximum effect. It's fine in the staccato passages. As a fellow lover of transcriptions, my general observation is that some source material works better than other, and in general bel canto opera works better than Wagner due to, I suspect, lesser density of the scoring and lesser complexity. I suspect Beethoven symphonies have something in common with Wagner in that respect. Have you ever looked at the Alkan Beethoven 3rd concerto transcription (it's first movement only). Whilst it is horrendously difficult, I hacked my way through it and my prevailing impression is that it works quite well.

[furtwaengler]

Yes the piano is a bright Yamaha C7. I performed the Alkan Beethoven 3rd on the very same instrument back in 2014. Alkan's writing is brilliant, but I don't remember how it went except a terrible mistake I made in the cadenza.   

[emill]

hello Dave,

It was pleasantly refreshing to hear a piano version of the Eroica and to be honest, I never realized
that there was a Liszt transcription of it.  More surprised that there is an Alkan transcription of it too.
Thanks for this and for expanding my music horizon.

[jc10202010]

I suspect the piano isn't quite sonorous enough in your recording for maximum effect. It's fine in the staccato passages. As a fellow lover of transcriptions, my general observation is that some source material works better than other, and in general bel canto opera works better than Wagner due to, I suspect, lesser density of the scoring and lesser complexity. I suspect Beethoven symphonies have something in common with Wagner in that respect. Have you ever looked at the Alkan Beethoven 3rd concerto transcription (it's first movement only). Whilst it is horrendously difficult, I hacked my way through it and my prevailing impression is that it works quite well.

Do you know where I can find the Alkan Beethoven 3rd concerto transcription? I have looked online and called sheet music stores but all all I can find is a copy of it on imslp that is barely legible so I am looking for something better.

https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No.3%2C_Op.37_(Beethoven%2C_Ludwig_van)

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I got my copy from Musica Obscura. Might be worth looking on the Alkan Society website to see if any alternatives are listed there. I don't know if there is a Billaudot edition,,for example.

[jc10202010]

I got my copy from Musica Obscura. Might be worth looking on the Alkan Society website to see if any alternatives are listed there. I don't know if there is a Billaudot edition,,for example.

Thank you very much. I could not find Musica Obscura on the internet so I am assuming it is a store in Scotland. If I am right could you please provide their phone number or address? I am in the US so I could not go there myself and all my online searches for the store have been futile.

[dogperson]

Thank you very much. I could not find Musica Obscura on the internet so I am assuming it is a store in Scotland. If I am right could you please provide their phone number or address? I am in the US so I could not go there myself and all my online searches for the store have been futile.

From a Google search, Musica Obscura is a New Hampshire publisher of rare scores.  The owner, John Dowd, died in 2016,  so they may or may not be operational  
 The link with the telephone number and address is below
https://www.chamberofcommerce.com/merrimack-nh/42954460-musica-obscura-editions

From Wiki, the distributor is a different company
https://www.thefullwiki.org/Musica_Obscura

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I got my score a long time ago and I'm fairly sure it was through a mailing address. If the owner is no longer alive, I imagine this address is no longer operational.

[visitor]

they might be long gone all my musica obscure  scores.are.vintage used amd new old stock , I think my Hummel piano sonatas  volume is.by them, have not come across any new scores or them or current publishing's
I'll look around my stacks , They are in sad disarray bit.if anything useful comes of it I'll post here,  the ones i.habe came from a music store that long went out of business here in town

[jc10202010]

From a Google search, Musica Obscura is a New Hampshire publisher of rare scores.  The owner, John Dowd, died in 2016,  so they may or may not be operational  
 The link with the telephone number and address is below
https://www.chamberofcommerce.com/merrimack-nh/42954460-musica-obscura-editions

From Wiki, the distributor is a different company
https://www.thefullwiki.org/Musica_Obscura

Thank you for the information. My google searches are not as effective as yours. I checked both the publisher and distributor. Unfortunately, they are both not operational so I will seek elsewhere.

I got my score a long time ago and I'm fairly sure it was through a mailing address. If the owner is no longer alive, I imagine this address is no longer operational.

Thank you, you are right. I confirmed your suspicion.

they might be long gone all my musica obscure  scores.are.vintage used amd new old stock , I think my Hummel piano sonatas  volume is.by them, have not come across any new scores or them or current publishing's
I'll look around my stacks , They are in sad disarray bit.if anything useful comes of it I'll post here,  the ones i.habe came from a music store that long went out of business here in town

Thank you

[visitor]

scratch that, i do have obscura stuff but the Hummel volume is by Musica Rara London , likley  sister Rm to Musica Obscura.