Most transcribers (Wild, Rachmaninoff, Godowsky, Friedman, Grunfeld, Liszt etc.) seem to write transcriptions that are usually very complex and difficult technically.

By contrast Siloti, Fiorentino and sometimes Hough write much less difficult transcriptions that I still think are extremely beautiful despite being far less complex.

Any thoughts why these few composer/pianists wrote transcriptions that were far less difficult than most others?

most pianist have a tric that they use for a arrangement of an composition.

wibi uses the 3 handed technic of liszt. If you practice the trics of the pianist you will be able to play the transcriptions

Fascinating ! Now please explain the secrets of the transcriptions by Rachmaninoff (Sergei), Godowsky, Liszt et. al. - even if they are not as good as wibi's. Just learn the tricks and you can play them, right ? Maybe there is hope for us yet.

I don't understand what you mean. First, who is "wibi"? Second, what "3 handed technic" are you talking about? I've never heard of that... In the 19th century, Sigismond Thalberg could play like he had 3 hands, but that's obviously not what you're referring to.

It would be incredibly insulting to say that all pianists need to do is learn "trics" and we can play these. Even with all the "trics" available to professional pianists, I rarely see any of them tackle Liszt's Beethoven transcriptions (particularly the ninth). Not to mention Godowsky's Bach transcriptions, Tchernov's transcription of Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain, or Alkan's transcription of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3. If all it takes are some tricks to master, why don't I seen more pianists playing these monsters?

I fully agree, Hexameron. Virtuoso playing is not (just) about tricks. It's also about musicality, physical stamina, etc....

Wibi Soerjadi is a Dutch virtuoso pianist of Indonesian descent. He is world-famous in all of Holland Sort of the Dutch answer to Lang Lang and Volodos, though I will not indulge in comparison. He sort of specializes in romantic pieces and rabble-rousing transcriptions/arrangements, some of his own. Admittedly he has an amazing technique, a huge bag of tricks, and can play about a million notes per minute.

The '3-handed technique' is a pianistic device, employed most prominently by Liszt and his peers, to have a melody in the middle register that is shared by two hands, so that it seems (or should seem) as if 3 hands are at work. Il Sospiro is a well-known example of that.

like I said wibi uses the 3 handed technic of liszt with in much of his transcriptions. And volodos uses a tric ( I don't know which) in his transcription of liszt rakozky (do I write this good?) march. Jan vayne uses in his improvisation a technic again and again (don't know eider what for technic.

I don't have the time to listen to the transcripions you say techneut because I have my work and 3 weeks holiday in the Swiss.

gr,

robert