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Feeling tired? Need to unwind? Then how about some gentle, soothing piano music? Welcome to the Episode 9 of the Fourth Series in the Relaxing Piano Playlist! In this themed episode, I perform for you a number of piano arrangements from original works by composers including Bach, Mozart, Dermot Macmurrough, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy.
EPISODE 9
0:00:30 - James Quinn
Hello and welcome to Episode 9 of Series 4 in the Relaxing Piano Playlist with your host James Quinn here at the piano, thank you very much for joining me. This episode is centred on a theme of piano arrangements. All of the pieces that you will hear, all vary in style and come from works originally written for choral, chamber, orchestral and art-songs.
The first piece that you’re going to hear, originally comes from the Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach, where he compiled several pieces for his son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach a in book entitled Klavierbuchlein, and the piece is a piano transcription of one of his keyboard works. From this, you will hear the Prelude in B minor. This arrangement was first made possible by the musician and composer Alexander Siloti and more recently has been given a more up-to-date interpretation by Doug Gould basing it on a recorded performance from the concert pianist Emil Gilels. Should you wish to try this piece out yourself, you are welcome to contact him via email at douggould@hotmail.co.uk
The next piece you will hear comes from the Classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and later completed by Franz Sussmayr, and in this case you’ll hear the hauntingly beautiful movement ‘Dies Irae’ from his most well known masterpiece, his choral Requiem which was unfinished at his untimely death in early December of 1791 and later published as K.626. The piano arrangement of this was made possible by Karl Klindworth.
The next piece originally comes from a new Irish composer Dermot MacMurrough. The piece that you’re going to hear is perhaps his most well known work, the Irish song called Macushla. The title is a form of transliteration, which when translated from the Irish language means ‘sweetheart’. This arrangement is in fact made possible by yours truly.
We then return to the Russian composer, Tchaikovsky for our next piece. Perhaps regarded as one of his greatest works and the most prolific ballets, The Nutcracker, you’ll hear the magic of pixie dust from 'The Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy'. The piano arrangement for this is by the composer himself, which was also compiled in The Nutcracker Suite which was debuted even before the original ballet was completed and performed. A more virtuosic piano arrangement for his was achieved by the Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev.
We also make another revisit to the composer Rachmaninoff, where you’ll hear yet again another one of his most celebrated pieces which was originally written for piano and voice, known simply as Vocalise, where he would later rescore for String Orchestra, which is the most performed version. He wrote this as the last of 14 Romances in 1915, and dedicated this particular song to a Russian Soprano, Antonia Nezdanova.
Finally we come to one more new addition with the Russian composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy, who collaborated with lyricist Mikhail Matusovsky when they released the originally titled “Leningrad Nights” in 1955, and would later become known as “Moscow Nights” . This has been arranged and transcribed for solo piano by one of Britain’s most celebrated and distinguished concert pianists today, Sir Stephen Hough, and I would like to personally thank Stephen for his kind permission for me to share my own recording of this gorgeous piece from his collection of piano transcriptions.
So to recap, here is the order just once more: Prelude in B minor originally by Whilem Freidman Bach and re-arranged by Doug Gould, the 'Dies Irae' from his Requiem by Mozart and arranged by Karl Klindworth, “Macushla” by Dermot Macmurrough and arranged by James Quinn, 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy' from The Nutcracker by Tchaicovsky, Vocalise from Op.34 By Rachmaninoff and arranged for the piano by Takuya Shigeta, and finally “Moscow Nights” by Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy and arranged by Sir Stephen Hough.
So sit back, relax, and I hope that you all enjoy the music. Thank you.