Golden Thread – The Art of Piano Transcription
Aron Rozsa (piano)
rec. 2022-23, Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Guangzhou, China
Acis Productions APL53561 [71]

There are a myriad ways of filling a recital titled The Art of Piano Transcription; four centuries and more of music have provided a rich source of material and virtuosi have always been eager to put their own stamp on orchestral, chamber, vocal and even keyboard works. Rozsa opts to go further back than is usual with a transcription by Peter Philips originally intended for harpsichord of Giulio Caccini’s Amarilli, a setting that appeared in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. Philips was born in England but left for Europe in his early twenties and spent much of his later life in Belgium. He was a prolific composer and wrote many madrigals but as a renowned keyboard player he made arrangements of several madrigals by other composers. This arrangement is something of a free fantasy though its lack of overt virtuosity makes it clear that he was attuned to the spirit of the piece. Liszt generally found the spirit of a piece but was often almost carried away with his passion for the music he was transcribing. While the Sarabande and Chaconne from Handel’s very early opera Almira is faithful to the dances that inspired it, Liszt explores the grandeur of 19^th century writing, especially in the very much extended Sarabande which becomes a set of variations. It gets quite extravagant at times but it is not all bravura; a good part of the piece is marked piú moderato religioso and has original music based on Handel’s dance that wouldn’t be out of place in Liszt’s Harmonies Poétiques et religieuses. By contrast the Chaconne, placed second here – it comes first in the opera – is only about twice the length of the original dance but once again adds layers of variation to the minuet-like original. It is in this transcription that I began to have doubts about Rozsa’s performance; there are the odd slips and a couple of fumbled bars which is perhaps a minor issue – perhaps he chose to record the album with minimal editing – and he gets round the notes certainly but there is often a heaviness and somewhat four-square playing. Compare the sprightly Chaconne with Mariam Batsashvili’s lovely performance on Cobra Record COBRA0056 which is faster and actually dances, the music flowing and liquid whereas in Rozsa’s slower tempo one is all too aware of the weight of the chords.

He is more successful in the cooler waters of Prokofiev’s truncated transcription of Buxtehude’s Prelude and Fugue in D minor which omits a large part of the fugue, Prokofiev choosing to skip right past the improvisatory sections and the fast triple time music to the adagio ending. Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s chorale prelude Durch Adams Fall, another prelude and fugue in reality also finds him more comfortable though here again there are curious little hesitations in some bars and this highly sustained music has more forward motion under Igor Levit’s fingers (Sony Classical 19439786572 review). The second Busoni transcription, that of Liszt’s grand organ fantasy on Ad nos, ad salutarem undam, the Anabaptists’ chorale from Act 1 of Meyerbeer’s la Prophète, is much more monumental. It is in three clear sections; a fantasie in two parts and a fugue. The first part is a variation form prélude and the second takes the outline of the theme and transforms it into a wonderfully reflective and contemplative work. The theme then becomes a fugue subject in the highly virtuosic finale, rhapsodic in its approach with many different sections including an allegro that contrasts the theme, now declamatory in the left hand with fast semiquavers in the right. Busoni was obviously well versed in Liszt’s style and it all sounds as authentically Liszt as one can imagine – there is even a reference to Liszt’s great Norma reminiscences in the statement of the theme towards the end, ensconced in a swirl of keyboard encompassing scales. The transcription is every bit as masterful as his arrangement of the Bach Chaconne or the same master’s organ works and it is bizarre that it is not better known. I grew up with Hamish Milne’s wonderful recording coupled with the Reubke piano sonata (now on Decca Eloquence 4822574) and have added Holger Groschopp’s more recent recording (Capriccio 7015) to that and I have to say that for me both are preferable to this version. Once again Rozsa takes his time about the whole thing; Milne comes in at 9.54/11.05/9.19, Groschopp 8.31/9.16/8.17 and Rozsa 11.48/15.59/10/36 which puts Rozsa as over 12 minutes slower than Groschopp. It’s not all about speed obviously but much of the piece lacks that frisson and energy that drives the work and even at the slower tempi Rozsa plays the gripping fugue in triplets rather than the more dramatic, and accurate, dotted rhythms, even slowing for no reason in bar 57. The booklet describes the adagio as a celestial, contemplative bel-canto and while there is some lovely playing it is often too held back and dull or workman-like – just try the molto tranquillo ed monioso which should be radiant with the chords ringing above the left hand arpeggios but is instead rather earthbound. The last eight bars of this section are repeated which, considering the messy rhythm at the end, suggests poor editing rather than the bars actually being repeated as some kind of ossia.

I wanted to enjoy this recital; it is well planned and takes us a little off the beaten track but Rozsa’s playing fails to ignite. There are moments of grandeur and he plays with big strokes but for me the rhythmic instability, heavy-handed playing, drawn out phrasing and lack of forward momentum doesn’t compete against stronger competition. These traits are not found in a very enjoyable live performance of the Liszt Sonata on youtube so it is a shame to find them here.

Rob Challinor

Contents
Giulio Caccini (1551-1618) trans. Peter Philips (c.1560-1628)
Amarilli di Julio Romano (c.1602)
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) trans. Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Almira – Sarabande and Chaconne HWV.1/S.181 (1705/1879)
Dieterich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707) transc. Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Prelude and Fugue in D minor BuxWV.140 (pub.1923)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) transc. Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
Durch Adams Fall Bv B.27 (after Bach’s BWV.637) (c.1708-1717/1898)
Franz Liszt transc. Ferruccio Busoni
Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale Ad nos, ad salutarem undam S.259 (1850/1897)