Richard Wagner's bicentennial year has yielded fresh performances of his music dramas, as well as some explorations of his non-operatic vocal and orchestral music. Somewhat surpisingly, though, the piano has figured significantly among releases in 2013: two recordings of Wagner's complete works for piano have appeared on the Brilliant and Dynamic labels, and they have been followed by this MDG album of keyboard transcriptions by various hands. Notably excluded are any transcriptions or paraphrases by Franz Liszt, which are ...
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Richard Wagner's bicentennial year has yielded fresh performances of his music dramas, as well as some explorations of his non-operatic vocal and orchestral music. Somewhat surpisingly, though, the piano has figured significantly among releases in 2013: two recordings of Wagner's complete works for piano have appeared on the Brilliant and Dynamic labels, and they have been followed by this MDG album of keyboard transcriptions by various hands. Notably excluded are any transcriptions or paraphrases by Franz Liszt, which are so famous that they would warrant a separate album by themselves, and including them would have overwhelmed the competition here. Instead, pianist Severin von Eckardstein has programmed less familiar arrangements that are almost never heard anymore, or so new that they haven't achieved wide recognition. In the former category are Louis Brassin's splashy treatment of selections from Das Ring der Nibelungen, Ferruccio Busoni's elaboration of Siegfried's Funeral Music from...
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