Schubert Lieder (3), transcriptions for piano, Op. 79a
Auf Flügeln des Gesanges, transcription for piano (after Mendelssohn)
Mi manca la voce from Rossini's Mosè, for piano, Op. 36/3
Sigismond Thalberg was one of the best-known pianists of the middle 19th century. He was gored by Liszt in a famous critical essay but remained popular, especially in the U.S., where he toured almost incessantly for a time. Thalberg offered not just keyboard-spanning heroics but a singing tone that was one of his trademarks. The pieces here, sympathetically treated by pianist Paul Wee, illustrate this aspect of his work: they are arrangements, by the composer himself, of opera arias and other vocal pieces, wherein the tune ...
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Sigismond Thalberg was one of the best-known pianists of the middle 19th century. He was gored by Liszt in a famous critical essay but remained popular, especially in the U.S., where he toured almost incessantly for a time. Thalberg offered not just keyboard-spanning heroics but a singing tone that was one of his trademarks. The pieces here, sympathetically treated by pianist Paul Wee, illustrate this aspect of his work: they are arrangements, by the composer himself, of opera arias and other vocal pieces, wherein the tune is put in the foreground through various ingenious devices. They are not virtuoso paraphrases of the Liszt type but straight presentations of the melodies, with accompaniments that sometimes grow into intricacy but not into fireworks. Wee has specialized in virtuoso repertory by the likes of Alkan, but he has an equally strong presence in this repertory, which is certainly worth rediscovery. Some of the tunes by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert are well known; others, by the likes of...
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