Tim Rumsey Transcriptions
Tim Rumsey (piano)
rec. 2024 Ruddock Performing Arts Centre, Birmingham
Luminate Records LR256710 [60]
There was a period in my younger days when I feared that music of the Golden Age of the piano and the composer pianist was a thing of the past, remembered through the occasional historic re-issue and recordings on obscure labels by less than top rank pianists. How fortunate then to find our current state, rife with historical releases and with major pianists not only exploring the nooks and crannies of the romantic literature but also creating piano transcriptions that rival the joy of those by Friedman, Tausig and Rosenthal. I am pleased to say that we can welcome one more; Tim Rumsey, a pianist and composer whose professional curiosity extends into jazz as well as classical. This album explores the connection between classical and jazz music with Gershwin and Trenet arranged by concert pianists Earl Wild and Alexis Weissenberg while Rumsey himself joins those pianists with his own homage to Wild’s transcriptions; one might even say Grainger as well whose love of Bach and Gershwin comes together in Blithe Bells, the wonderful piece he wrote based on Bach’s sheep may safely graze.
It is not only a jazz disc though and the recital opens with Rumsey’s own transcription of William Walton’s Orb and Sceptre, the march that Walton wrote for the Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953. This is an impressive arrangement; a decent piano transcription exists, written by Roy Douglas, Walton’s assistant and a composer in his own right, but Rumsey’s arrangement goes far beyond that in terms of orchestral colour and the amount that he manages to bring in of the instrumentation. The performance is brim full of pomp and panache. The same can be said of his transcription of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice which has only recently begun to appear in piano guise now that there are pianists who feel confident to meet the challenge of reproducing Dukas’ vibrant colours and orchestral detail. Victor Staub’s transcription was recorded by Yuja Wang, though she does rewrite parts of it (Deutsch Grammophon 4790052 review) but more recently Beatrice Berrut recorded her own transcription on her glorious disc Abracadabra (La Dolce Volta LDV136 not reviewed). There are moments in Rumsey’s performance that are comparatively just a wee bit pedestrian – the contrapuntal section in the second half for example – and for sheer visceral magic Berrut wins but this is a minor thing considering this worthy transcription and Rumsey’s dashing performance. Nothing could be further from this riotous capering than Rumsey’s transcription of Purcell’s moving Dido’s lament and impressive as the Walton and Dukas are I find this transcription extraordinary, a cleverly structured and layered passacaglia imaginatively laid out in terms of the piano. A low pedal introduces the distinctive chromatic ground bass but this is now placed in the high reaches of the keyboard. Fragments of the melody emerge in this austere opening and the texture gradually begins to thicken and grow in complexity until the full might of the modern grand is brought to bear, not extravagantly or flamboyantly but with an aching cry of utter despair. Emotion spent the piece slowly fades into nothingness. This is a terrific addition to the transcription genre and stands proudly amongst the distinguished company it rubs shoulders with on this disc.
That distinguished company is formed of three composer/pianists, Percy Grainger, Earl Wild and Alexis Weissenberg. The first two names are well known in the transcription field but Weissenberg’s contribution could well have gone unsung were it not for the relatively recent revelation that a short-play disc of six Charles Trenet song arrangements played and arranged by Mr Nobody was in fact none other than the Bulgarian born Weissenberg. His compositions are only gradually beginning to emerge and the vast majority remain in manuscript – I notice that he also made a transcription of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice which I hope someone decides to explore before too long. A glance at YouTube reveals that En avril à Paris is becoming popular with pianists and it is easy to see why; it is a gloriously elegant and nostalgic concert waltz that Rumsey plays with considerable élan. Fauré’s Après un Rêve was arranged in a rather jazzy way by Earl Wild but Rumsey has chosen Percy Grainger’s more faithful but no less passionate version to record alongside his lovely setting of Nell, both of them admirable additions to the song transcription tradition. Another is John Dowland’s Now, O now, I needs must part a less familiar setting that opens in simple style but in verse two gradually becomes almost pure Grainger with achingly beautiful clashes, turns of harmony and grand romantic gestures, a Dowland brought firmly into the twentieth century. The score tells us that Granger wrote this concert version in Claremont, North Kensington, Adelaide, Australia between January 28th and February 2nd 1935 with an easy version written in Sweden the following November – Rumsey chooses the full concert version. As always with Grainger the score is a delight with instructions like more lingeringly, more waywardly, shyly, middle voices feelingly and the inevitable slow off lots!
Gershwin was a favourite of Grainger, who wrote a large scale fantasy for two pianos on Porgy and Bess as well as transcribing two of his songs, but it is to Earl Wild that Rumsey turns for the next song, Liza, one of Wild’s seven virtuoso études. Rumsey makes light work of Wild’s coruscating decorations, effortlessly revealing Gershwin’s melody. Rumsey straddles the jazz and classical worlds with aplomb, evident in Wild’s étude as well as his own homage to Wild, the Variations on Gershwin’s Shall we dance? which shares features with Wild’s variations on someone to watch over me, notably the central tangothough Rumsey shows he has his own ideas in this wonderful reworking, including the bass introductions to the theme and the comically disjointed nature of the theme when it returns; the dance is clear, a definite toe-tapper and doubtless guaranteed to bring the house down in recital.
Rumsey is a name to watch and a worthy newcomer to the new golden age of the piano. This is a cracker of an album and I urge anyone with a love of the piano to give it a try.
Rob Challinor
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Contents
William Walton (1902-1983) arr Tim Rumsey
Orb and Sceptre Coronation March (1953)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) arr. Percy Grainger (1882-1961)
Après un Rêve (1870-77)
Nell (1878)
Charles Trenet (1913-2001)/Walter Eiger (1917-1991) arr. Alexis Weissenberg (1929-2012)
En avril à Paris (c.1953)
John Dowland (c.1563-1626) arr. Percy Grainger
Now, O now, I needs must part (pub.1597)
Percy Grainger
Blithe Bells based on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sheep may safely graze (1931)
George Gershwin (1898-1937) arr. Earl Wild (1915-2010)
Etude No.1 Liza
Tim Rumsey
Variations on Gershwin’s Shall we dance?
Henry Purcell (c.1659-1695) arr. Tim Rumsey
Dido’s Lament When I am laid in earth from Dido and Aeneas (c.1688)
Paul Dukas (1865-1935) arr. Tim Rumsey
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1897)
