Wagner-Liszt Am stillen Herd from Die Meistersinger

Here's another from the recital I did last year for Liszt's birthday. It's one of the more rarely played "transcriptions" (actually more of a paraphrase than a transcription--it doesn't follow the original closely at all). I don't know why, because I think it's one of the more interesting, and it's also tremendous fun to play.

Liszt-Wagner - Am Stillen Herd (8:11)

 

I really enjoyed this! I don't know this paraphrase especially well and have never looked at it properly, but my initial impressions are that this is a very good performance. The piano sound is also excellent.

 

By the way, when (if?) you get around to putting this on the site, could you please correct the spelling of my name next to the Beethoven-Liszt transcription at http://pianosociety.com/cms/index.php?section=243 ? Thanks.

 

I enjoyed this much too. Can't help marveling at Wagners sumptuous melodies, and the sure-footed way Liszt set them for piano. I only regret that he could not resist adding his pyrotechnical bits as usual. But I guess that's part and parcel of the romantic transcription. It is wonderfully played.

This one is on the site, and that typo fixed. I took the liberty to rename it liszt-wagner because that's how it was done with the previous transcription by Andrew.

 

You're not going to like me for this, but if I had a previous transcription up as liszt-wagner (which one? I assume Abendstern - I don't see any liszt-wagner on my artist page), then I'm in error, and really should know better! The convention is composer-transcriber, and Alexander's original naming was correct. (On a side note, it's the convention, but I think it should be composer/transcriber, to avoid confusion with composers with hypenated names like Villa-Lobos). Anyway, I'm glad this is up; it's a very fine performance.

 

Yes, I'd be a lot happier to see the original composer's name going first.

Some style guides recommend using an en dash to distinguish collaborations from hyphenated names, so you'd have "Wagner–Liszt" rather than "Wagner-Liszt". But for filenames, the hyphen is the most practical way. (Slashes in filenames will mess up some systems.)

Anyway, I'm glad people enjoyed the music!

 

For better or worse, we do file these transcriptions under Liszt, not under Bach, Beethoven, Wagner etc. So in that sense it makes sense to name them accordingly. I wonder, if anybody would be brave enough to record it, we would name and file Hamelin's transcription of Liszt's transcription of La Campanella. Under Paganini maybe ?

Let's not even think of using slashes in UNIX filenames, or trying to distinguish between a dash and a hyphen in a shell script.

This will forever remain inconsistent and controversial. It peeves me but I decided long ago to leave it and not spend time trying to rectify it.

 

Leaving it is exactly what you didn't do today. Do you mind putting it back the way it was? I won't ask you to change other things on the site, but at least we can start being consistent with newly uploaded files.

 

Leaving it is what I've been doing for years. I blithely did the same as what I did with Andrew's recording in november, assuming that was 'right'. Here's what we have on Wagner transcriptions:

Code:

-rw-r--r-- 1 chris  chris    11789480 2012-12-09 13:36 liszt-wagner-amstillenherd-hanysz.mp3
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chris  www-data 11102127 2012-11-29 05:27 liszt-wagner-abendstern-wright.mp3
-rw-rw-r-- 1 monica www-data 10180675 2011-11-06 05:59 wagner-liszt-rienzi-wright.mp3
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chris  www-data  9322624 2010-05-29 21:01 wagner-liszt-liebestod-wright.mp3

Bit of a mess, but I decided I don't actually give a toss about which composer comes first, as long as the name conforms to the overall naming scheme,
and as long as my scripts handle it correctly and produce sensible output (we'll have to see about that, there are more glitches with double names
etc and I don't feel up to fixing them).

Once again, all these are filed under Liszt. You would not suggest to move them to the Wagner page I hope ?

 

Maybe not, but the nice people donating recordings to your site sometimes give a toss. I try not to create extra work for you without a good reason, but I do happen to care about this particular issue.

In an ideal world, transcriptions would be listed twice, once for each composer. (And paganini-liszt-hamelin would get three entries.) But I don't expect it to actually happen. If you put the filename back to the name I chose when I uploaded it, I'll be satisfied.

 

Not unless you volunteer.

I most certainly hope so :roll: It's not worth arguing about and I'm getting so fed up with these endless discussions that I'll name each file just as the uploader wishes. After all the name of a file is totally irrelevant to a listener. I've renamed Andrew's file as well.

 

Thanks.

 

Now, how does the story go? After the concert when the Russian Easter Overture was played, they asked a prominent member of the local Café Society if she knew who wrote the music. She was most happy to show the world that she was there for more than social convention and replied, "Why, yes! The work was written by Rimsky and was transcribed by Korsakov!"

 

That's a good one! :lol:

 

I'm late listening to this because I did not think I would like it. I've never paid much attention to these romantic transcriptions.

I was very wrong. This is a wonderful recording - the performance, the piece, the instrument, and the mike were all splendid.

 

Thanks! The first time I performed this piece was on a Yamaha C5--a beautiful instrument, but it didn't really have the dynamic range to bring out the best of this work. This recording was on a Steinweg-Grotrian concert grand.

 

Hi Alexander, I really enjoyed this less known piece you introduced and your splendid performance!

 

Fabulous piece and performance. I didn't know this transcription at all (nor the operatic passage from Meistersinger on which it's based, I'm ashamed to say), but it seems to have an apt mixture of decorous elegance and bravado and your performance convinces me. I was surprised how much the opening bars sounded like a Viennese waltz! (at least to my ears).

What I like most about your performance is that you are able to get these orchestral effects without struggling and your fluid fingers are giving listeners a sense of the whole. There are perhaps a couple of places it could be a mite more rhythmical/clearer, but that's cutting it pretty fine (or it could just be me )

Again, excellent!

Joe

 

Thanks Joe. I wasn't thinking of a waltz when I played it, but it makes sense now you mentioned it. And no, it's not just you, there are a few things I could improve on. I'm glad you enjoyed it overall.