Piano transcriptions of the symphony's Im sure I heard one some time ago?

[abarratt]

Some time ago I "overheard" a piano playing a transciption of one of the symphony's I don't know any more but a wondered if they exist on cd etc and who actually did the transcriptions ?

[Andrea]

Hmmmm. Could that be the 15 variations and a fugue on a original theme in E flat, "The Eroica Variations, op. 35"? Don't quote me on that though...

[Peter]

Originally posted by abarratt:
Some time ago I "overheard" a piano playing a transciption of one of the symphony's I don't know any more but a wondered if they exist on cd etc and who actually did the transcriptions ?

Liszt wrote some superb transcriptions of the Symphonies - very hard to play! Not sure if they are available on CD.

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'Man know thyself'

[Joy]

I would like to hear some of these. I heard once on radio The Pathetique (all movements)
played on a guitar. It was simply beautiful!

Joy

[Rod]

Originally posted by Peter:
Not sure if they are available on CD.

They are.

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by abarratt:
Some time ago I "overheard" a piano playing a transciption of one of the symphony's I don't know any more but a wondered if they exist on cd etc and who actually did the transcriptions ?

As I mentioned awhile back on a different topic, piano transcriptions of orchestral works were very common in the 19th C., before the age of phonographs and radio. Trained pianists were common among families which spent evenings listening to the masters this way. We who have only to push a button to hear the great masterpieces in vivid stereo every day, can hardly imagine what it must have been like to be able to hear these treasures only in live performances at intervals, expecially if one didn't live near a great city.

Also, Beethoven was in the habit of occasionally providing 'exclusive' publication rights to multiple publishers of the same piece. So many piano transcriptions of his works existed and some are still in print.

[Chaszz]

I should have answered your question more directly by including that the transcriptions were often written by untalented composers, or musicians who eked out a living this way, or occasionally by a young master before his own time, getting hold of some needed money by transcribing a currently popular composer.

[aloysia]

Originally posted by Peter:
Liszt wrote some superb transcriptions of the Symphonies - very hard to play! Not sure if they are available on CD.

I just bought a CD of transcriptions of the 1st and 3rd symphonies on the NAXOS label. I had heard a transcription of the 6th symphony in the film "Impromptu" and loved it. In the film, Liszt and Chopin are playing it "four hands." I couldn't find the "sixth" in my local record store, except in the complete set of transcriptions by Liszt, which was quite expensive.

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by aloysia:
[[/b]

I just bought a CD of transcriptions of the 1st and 3rd symphonies on the NAXOS label. I had heard a transcription of the 6th symphony in the film "Impromptu" and loved it. In the film, Liszt and Chopin are playing it "four hands." I couldn't find the "sixth" in my local record store, except in the complete set of transcriptions by Liszt, which was quite expensive.

[/B][/QUOTE]
Www.naxos.com runs a subscription service where for (I believe) $6 or so a month, you can listen to all their recordings over the internet. I think there is also a free trial period of a month. I used it for several months but unsubscribed because it was light on opera and I am interested in opera right now. But it has a good intrumental music range. I think it's their whole catalogue, so those interested could probably hear the first CD mentioned above.

[Joy]

Originally posted by Chaszz:
We who have only to push a button to hear the great masterpieces in vivid stereo every day, can hardly imagine what it must have been like to be able to hear these treasures only in live performances at intervals, expecially if one didn't live near a great city.

So true, Chaszz! We probably take it for granted how easy it is to just pop in a CD or cassette and listen to any music or concert we want at the moment. Can you imagine how many people never got to listen to any of the great music or go to any concerts, more so than did I imagine.

Joy

[spaceray]

Despite all the modern inventions available to us there are a lot of performers we will never hear as they choose not to be professional artists.There is a bass voice in my choir who loves to sing and has an incredible gift for it however chooses to be a surgeon and not a musician.I wonder just how many great musicians there are that prefer to keep there blessings to themselves.

[Chris]

They probably have the same idea I did - that pursuing a career in music is simply too risky. I imagine a lot of them would have chosen music over their current professions if they felt it was a realistic goal. Now, I'm sure I wasn't good enough to have done it anyway, but I believe there are many people who could have if they hadn't been discouraged by the apparent hopelessness of it.

[This message has been edited by Chris (edited November 23, 2002).]

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by Chris:
They probably have the same idea I did - that pursuing a career in music is simply too risky. I imagine a lot of them would have chosen music over their current professions if they felt it was a realistic goal. Now, I'm sure I wasn't good enough to have done it anyway, but I believe there are many people who could have if they hadn't been discouraged by the apparent hopelessness of it.

[This message has been edited by Chris (edited November 23, 2002).]

And the near hopelessness of pursuing a career as an artist has been caused,
ironically, by the very same technological miracles I was extolling just above,
in saying that we can hear the masterpieces every day at the push of a button.
If it weren't for recordings, you musicians could all make a decent living
playing in all kinds of orchestras and smaller groups which would be needed
everywhere. If it weren't for photography, I could make a good living as a
portrait painter or landscape painter, and without having to add the shmaltzy
sweetness one must add today in order to have a miniscule chance to do so.

Of course, then we wouldn't have the symphony at our fingertips, and might die
of the flu in our teens.

Let me pose a question: how many among us would be willing to have a successful career as an artist, doing what we love as a matter of course, if in order to do so we had to be thrust back into the 18th or 19th century, with their poor health care, high infancy death rates, and all the rest of it?

[spaceray]

Originally posted by Chris:
They probably have the same idea I did - that pursuing a career in music is simply too risky. I imagine a lot of them would have chosen music over their current professions if they felt it was a realistic goal. Now, I'm sure I wasn't good enough to have done it anyway, but I believe there are many people who could have if they hadn't been discouraged by the apparent hopelessness of it.

[This message has been edited by Chris (edited November 23, 2002).]

You say that now you are sure that you were not good enough to make it professionally?
I may be mistaken but I think you've said before that your principle instrument is electric guitar so I'm assuming Rock would have been the genre you might have entered.
For heavens sake look at all the dreck and junk that passes for music in this catagory,
it seems to me you most likely were discouraged by talentless "musicains"that make it to the top rather than your own ability ,you artists are awfully hard on yourselves.What instruments do you play now?

[spaceray]

Originally posted by Chaszz:

Originally posted by Chris:
They probably have the same idea I did - that pursuing a career in music is simply too risky. I imagine a lot of them would have chosen music over their current professions if they felt it was a realistic goal. Now, I'm sure I wasn't good enough to have done it anyway, but I believe there are many people who could have if they hadn't been discouraged by the apparent hopelessness of it.

[This message has been edited by Chris (edited November 23, 2002).]

And the near hopelessness of pursuing a career as an artist has been caused,
ironically, by the very same technological miracles I was extolling just above,
in saying that we can hear the masterpieces every day at the push of a button.
If it weren't for recordings, you musicians could all make a decent living
playing in all kinds of orchestras and smaller groups which would be needed
everywhere. If it weren't for photography, I could make a good living as a
portrait painter or landscape painter, and without having to add the shmaltzy
sweetness one must add today in order to have a miniscule chance to do so.

Of course, then we wouldn't have the symphony at our fingertips, and might die
of the flu in our teens.

Let me pose a question: how many among us would be willing to have a successful career as an artist, doing what we love as a matter of course, if in order to do so we had to be thrust back into the 18th or 19th century, with their poor health care, high infancy death rates, and all the rest of it?

Shmaltzy sweetness sells.What can you do.

It's my understanding that musicians began as
servants to the church and to court .You had to be good or you were out on the street.It "paid" to have chops and keep them honed.If you sang or played well you had bed and board,as soon as arthritis set in or you lost your voice you would be gone and forgotten.Not that different from today I venture to say.