Kempff’s Most Memorable Piano Transcriptions
Transcriptions
There are few more sublime manifestations of the numinous in the mundane than Bach chorale prelude transcriptions sensitively played on the piano. Unfortunately, such things are now virtually forbidden by the authentic instrument law.
But there was a time when the most eloquent tribute to the numinous in a transcription came from Wilhelm Kempff, a composer-pianist of the kind now virtually extinct. This disc is a return to his magisterial 1975 recording transcriptions, and it contains some of the finest examples of the genre that you will ever hear on a CD.
As a pianist, Wilhelm Kempff had the good fortune of playing with some of the greatest players in the history of the piano. His musical gifts are reflected in the fact that he was a prolific composer as well, with six stage works, two symphonies and several chamber, songs and piano music to his credit.
Kempff’s Most Memorable Piano Transcriptions
He had a gift for transposing the great composers into his own medium, and it is no surprise that his transcriptions of the Gluck and Handel pieces here sound remarkably like their originals. He also has an affinity for the piano’s most limpid and uncanny voice leading qualities.
This recital, which also includes the Sicilliano from the flute Sicilliano and the Largo from the harpsichord concerto in F minor as well as a Toccata and Fugue, an English Suite, a French Suite and a Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother is filled to the brim with exemplary performances, most notably in the pellucid phrasing and crystalline tone of his Bach performance of the G minor English Suite.
Among the other highlights are his readings of two of the most famous Bach transcriptions, “Jesu, joy of man’s desire” and “Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland.” The latter is an especially interesting transcription. In contrast to other transcriptions of the piece, which emphasize individual and disruptive left hand melodies, Kempff’s approach focuses on integration, wholeness and the confluence of left and right hands.
The most unusual and impressive thing about Kempff’s transcription is the way in which it reveals the distinctive organ sonorities that were present in the original. The climax is a bell-filled Wir danken dir in which celebration is mixed with praise, while the concluding modulation is surprisingly dramatic with distinctive organ sonorities resonating throughout the rest of the performance.
Recent Comments