Program Notes
Historical and Analytical Program Notes to "On Wings of Song"
The piano - a string or percussion instrument?
There is a long-standing debate concerning the classification of the piano: with over two hundred strings, is the piano a string instrument, or do the 88 hammers define the piano as a percussion instrument? Classification is, of course, unnecessary, but the dialogue has lead many composers to stress the lyrical and vocal capabilities of the piano in response to those who view it as a noisy instrument of percussive strikes and blows.
The successful transferal of vocal music to the piano offers the most obvious display of the sustaining power, singing quality, and intimacy possible on a piano. Four of the works on this CD are examples of such, namely Mendelssohn/Liszt’s “On the Wings of Song,” Liszt’s Reminiscences on Bellini’s opera Norma, my own transcription of “Erbarme Dich” from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and the Strauss/Godowsky “Ständchen.” The works by Ravel, Mozart, and Grieg all offer their own, unique accounts of the piano as an instrument of melody.
Transcriptions
These four vocal transcriptions for piano honor the great tradition of viewing the old through new eyes. Transcriptions are simultaneously retrospective and forward-looking, as the transcriber takes a work of the past and re-imagines it into an entity that resonates with the present. The art of transcription used to flourish as an essential element of the pianist’s prowess, whether for purposes of modernization, virtuosic display, or as a conduit for large-scale ensemble works before the age of recording. The intricate process of transcription often determined the extent of the pianist's musical ingenuity and dexterity. As the formidable pianist – and prolific transcriber – Ferruccio Busoni pronounced:
Transcription occupies an important place in the literature of the piano; and looked at from a right point of view, every important piano piece is the reduction of a big thought to a practical instrument. But transcription has become an independent art; no matter whether the starting-point of a composition is original or unoriginal. Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, and Brahms were evidently all of the opinion that there is artistic value concealed in a pure transcription, for they all cultivated the art themselves, seriously and lovingly.
The works on "On Wings of Song"
- Mendelssohn: "On Wings of Song"
- Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit
- Mozart: Sonata in E-flat major, K. 282
- Grieg: "Air" from Holberg Suite
- Liszt: Reminiscences of Norma
- Bach/Anderson: "Erbarme Dich" from St. Matthew Passion
- Encore - Strauss/Godowsky: "Standchen"
