Pianophilia

CASELLA

Does anyone know if exist a piano solo transcription of Pupazzetti [four hand piano] by Casella?
Thank you, Rosario

Tim, I feel like this is an issue with a great many operas. I wish they could hold my interest in a greater amount. It seems like there are always dull moments/arias to be found. Maybe this is because my background in piano, but I just find a lot more variety in other kinds of works. For example, even as much as I love Elijah (and Mendelssohn), which you just posted, it has some amazing moments but also many dull ones. Yes, I am aware that it is an oratorio. I don't notice such variable quality in his chamber music for instance. This is all personal opinion, and I try very hard to enjoy all the music that I can. Normally I wouldn't complain, opera is great (I'm married to a vocalist so I should know..), just thought I would contribute to the controversy . One example of an opera that keeps me mentally occupied and happy the whole way through: Busoni's Turandot. Although opera tends to "move" me less than other genres, I completely enjoy the voice in lieder.

Alex, thank you for your reflections - they fit the 'keyboard music discussion'
heading to a tee. I'm always enjoy a hearty debate about music, or anything
else really! Regarding dull moments in music, I agree with you, there are plenty,
not just in opera, but in all the other genres of music. In opera, often the tedious
bits are when the details of the plot are described, these being the moments
when it's impossible to produce the best tunes. In symphonies and all the other
abstract forms, the dull moments for me are almost always in the slow movements.
I love music to have a forward dynamic thrust, increasing with time. This is why,
for example, imo listening to Tchaikovsky's Sextet Op70 is a zillion times more interesting
than listening to Alkan's Piano Sonata Op33, which gets progressively slower, and ends up
with one losing the will to live!

Hmmm,

You definitely wouldn't want to listen to Alkans Op.33 Sonata in Eastbourne then!
One of many places where the difference between life and death is imperceptible ...

regards,
tobyjj

For fans of 2H transcriptions, I notice that some kind person has added
a number of files to IMSLP recently, including Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten,
and a couple more overtures (Parisina and The Nairades) from one of
my favourite English composers, William Sterndale Bennett.

Even this name is music to my ears, in much the same way as a
few other composers' names are (e.g. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Charles Villiers Stanford, et. al.). In the opposite camp are unmusical
names such as Paul Hindemith and Kurt Weill. Am I mad, or is this
something that others also feel?

Perhaps they should have been called Paul Hitan'miss and Kurt Vile! Lol!

The year's times. Couldn't the German language have come up with
something a bit less prosaic than that to describe the seasons?

Does anyone have a transcription so this beautiful Korngold Waltz?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXDuBKvQ ... r_embedded

Thanks!

Thanks very much for Die Jahreszeiten, Tim.

I love this every bit as much as The Creation.


jeremy

Me too! I just wish I could produce piano solo versions of some of the
other great religious works of the late 18th. and early 19th. centuries,
such as the masses of Mozart, Haydn, and Schubert.

Please note that I've also recently exported to IMSLP another excellent
Metzdorff arrangement, namely that of Weber's opera Euryanthe Op.81.
This opera proved surprisingly tricky to locate in piano solo form.
Just go to IMSLP's Weber page to import it, if you're interested.

Please note also that I've now unilaterally banned the terms 'upload'
and 'download', since they both imply the existence of a hierarchy,
which I simply don't accept. Instead, 'export' and 'import' will be
used instead in future.

As regards Korngold, Vincent Youmans did some arrangements of
Korngold, if that's any help.