Noah's Notes: Musings of a 17-year-old musician (no.6)

Among the most famous works in the Liszt oeuvre is La Campanella: a peppering of octaves gives way to a light eerie melody, and then all is given a new confidence with a few simple arpeggiated chords – undoubtedly a masterpiece, but whose is it? That gorgeous melody is not Liszt's but Paganini's and it is from his second concerto. In Paganini's La Campanella a lot of the Liszt material is present but in quite a different precedence. And hence the Liszt work is considered above mere transcription – vindicated from that sordid label, and so performed rather widely (for the best recording of Liszt's La Campanella, I would recommend Edith Farnadi). Others were not so lucky.

Liszt transcriptions – other ones – are not played very regularly but still played, nonetheless. August Horn – a man with around 123 exceptional arrangements to his name, each of them freely accessible (via IMSLP) – has two tracks on Spotify. This is transcription from orchestra to keyboard, but how about the other way round?

Stokowski was widely panned for transcribing Bach's ‘Little’ Fugue (and more) for modern orchestra, and that, plus the hair, meant he was considered as some sort of crazy scientist, toying with nature until the inevitable conclusion of the revolt of nature (the metaphor is mine, but the sentiment is theirs). Despite all the decrying, however, no corruption came to the original work, which may still be heard in all its full glory on an Albert Schweitzer 78. My personal opinion is that it does not sound quite as good on the orchestra as it does on the organ. And, ultimately, the public shared my view, for as the novelty wore off it did not become the fashion.

For the first half of this article, I have been talking of transcriptions made by others. Now I shall address my own. I love Mahler's Symphony No.1, but remained unable to play it, as I wished to. So, I got the orchestral score, and with a little help from Bruno Walter's four-hand version, completed my own 86-page document. I'm not saying this to flog it, as it is released into the public domain (search ‘Mahler Titan IMSLP’, and click ‘Arrangements and Transcriptions’ under ‘Sheet Music’), but to highlight how pleased I am to have made that decision, despite the slog. I now have a completely new understanding of the Symphony, either from simply playing it myself, or from having stared at it for so long.

Transcription, despite certain abstract questions of artistic purity, enables us to play something we want to, but otherwise could not. Making a transcription, even and preferably a much shorter one, is a grand exercise for any budding musician; although, of course, to play or hear another's is also a great help. When it comes to the question of heightened appreciation, listen to those two Campanellas, probably Liszt's first (for Paganini's La Campanella, listen to Yehudi Menuhin playing with Anatole Fistoulari). Understanding is the inevitable conclusion here.

Self-portrait by Noah