Arrangements or Transfigurations Wilhelm Kempff, Grumiaux Trio, Guarneri Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, Zemlinsky

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): The Well-Temperered Clavier, Vol I, BWV 846–869:
• 1 Bach: The Well-Temperered Clavier, Vol I, BWV 846–869: I. Prelude in E-Flat Minor, BWV 853 03:14
• 2 Bach: The Well-Temperered Clavier, Vol I, BWV 846–869: II. Fugue in E-Flat Minor, BWV 853 05:05
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Six Preludes and Fugues for Violin, Viola and Cello No. 1, K. 404a:
• 3 Mozart: Six Preludes and Fugues for Violin, Viola and Cello No. 1, K. 404a: In D Minor (Adagio) 04:00
• 4 Mozart: Six Preludes and Fugues for Violin, Viola and Cello No. 1, K. 404a: In D Minor (Fuga) 03:55
• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897): Piano Quartet in G Minor No. 1, Op. 25:
• 5 Brahms: Piano Quartet in G Minor No. 1, Op. 25: II. Intermezzo. Allegro ma non troppo 08:23
• 6 Brahms: Piano Quartet in G Minor No. 1, Op. 25: II. Intermezzo. Allegro ma non troppo (Orchestrated by Arnold Schönberg) 08:09
• Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971): Three Pieces for String Quartet:
• 7 Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet: I. Danse 00:50
• 8 Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet: II. Excentrique 02:03
• 9 Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet: III. Cantique 04:06
• Four Etudes for Orchestra:
• 10 Stravinsky: Four Etudes for Orchestra: I. Danse 00:52
• 11 Stravinsky: Four Etudes for Orchestra: II. Excentrique 02:03
• 12 Stravinsky: Four Etudes for Orchestra: III. Cantique 03:49
• Leoš Janáček (1854 - 1928): Mládí, Suite for Wind Sextet:
• 13 Janáček: Mládí, Suite for Wind Sextet: I. Allegro 03:24
• 14 Janáček: Mládí, Suite for Wind Sextet: II. Andante sostenuto 04:49
• 15 Janáček: Mládí, Suite for Wind Sextet: III. Vivace 03:41
• 16 Janáček: Mládí, Suite for Wind Sextet: IV. Allegro animato 04:32
• Mládí (Transcribed for String Quartet by Kryštof Mařatka):
• 17 Janáček: Mládí (Transcribed for String Quartet by Kryštof Mařatka): I. Allegro 03:31
• 18 Janáček: Mládí (Transcribed for String Quartet by Kryštof Mařatka): II. Andante sostenuto 05:37
• 19 Janáček: Mládí (Transcribed for String Quartet by Kryštof Mařatka): III. Vivace 03:45
• 20 Janáček: Mládí (Transcribed for String Quartet by Kryštof Mařatka): IV. Allegro animato 04:51
• Total Runtime 01:20:39

Info for Arrangements or Transfigurations

Whether merely copying, or else adapting, transcribing (for piano), changing key, style, instrumentation or orchestration – musical arrangement is common outside the world of classical music. Here is a world premiere by contemporary Czech composer Kryštof Martaka, whose string quartet arrangement of 'Mladi', Janácek’s wind sextet has virtually become his master’s 3rd Quartet. Are these works merely ‘in the style of’ or genuine transfigurations, along the lines of Schoenberg’s famous Transfigured Night Op. 4, itself an orchestration of a poem by Richard Dehmel? Judge for yourselves!

1-2 BACH: The Well-Tempererd Clavier Vol.I. Prelude and Fugue in E flat minor BWV 853 Recorded in Berlin, January 1961, Ufa Tonstudio / Wilhelm Kempff [piano] 3-4 MOZART: Six Preludes and Fugues, KV 404a No.1 Recorded in Switzerland, January 1967 / Grumiaux Trio 5 BRAHMS: Piano Quartet No.1, Op.25, II. Intermezzo. Allegro ma non troppo Recorded in New York-City, 30 December 1967 / Artur Rubinstein [piano], Guarneri Qt 6 BRAHMS Arr. Arnold SCHOENBERG: II. Intermezzo. Allegro ma non troppo Recorded in Chicago City, September 1962 / Chicago SO, Robert Craft 7-9 STRAVINSKY: Three Pieces for String Quartet Recorded live in Prague, 2 February 1987 / Tokyo String Qt 10-12 Four Etudes for Orchestra (1914) Recorded in London, July 1964 / LSO, Antal Dorati 13-16 JANÁ EK: Youth (Mládí), suite for wind sextet Recorded in Prague, Domovina Studio, July 1999 / Prague Wind Quintet 17-20 JANACEK transc Krystof MARTAKA for String Quartet, Mladi Recorded in Prague, September 2016, Studio Martinek, in the presence of the Arranger / Zemlinsky Qt

Wilhelm Kempff, piano
Grumiaux Trio
Artur Rubinstein, piano
Guarneri Quartet
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Tokyo String Quartet
London Symphony Orchestra
Prague Wind Quintet
Zemlinsky Quartet

Digitally remastered

Wilhelm Kempff
started his career in Postsdam. In 1899 his father was appointed Royal Music Director and Cantor of the Church of St. Nicholas in Jüterbog near Potsdam and with unavoidable interruptions Wilhelm Kempff remained a resident until 1945. In 1931 with his colleagues he drew international musical attention to Potsdam, when the German Music Institute for Foreigners arranged masterclasses for professional performers in the Marmorpalais. Kempff’s courses were, until 1944, extremely popular. In 1945 he left the city, abandoning his property but retaining hope for a unified Germany and a return to Potsdam. Until 1955 he lived in Thurnau, and from then until 1986 in Ammerland on the Starnberger See and in the Italian town of Positano, which gradually became his home and where he settled in 1986. In spite of his busy concert career at home and abroad, his broadcasts and recordings, he did not give up his concerts in Potsdam, which continued after his departure. In 1956 he established in Positano the Potsdam tradition of mastercourses and founded international summer courses for the interpretation of Beethoven.

Less well-known is Wilhelm Kempff’s activity as an organist and as a composer. The foundation of his many-sided musical activity lay in his early years in Potsdam. Even before his first recital as a pianist in the autumn of 1907 in the Barberini Palace he made his début as an organist in the Church of St. Nicholas. He accompanied the choir in a concert of the Church Music Society and played the B minor Prelude from the second part of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and was soon employed as assistant organist, carrying out his duties independently. He acquired a large practical repertoire of organ music, learned from his father and his grandfather, Cantor Friedrick Kempff. Later he declared that the art of organ-playing like that of preaching, could be learned with difficulty, but was better to be passed on from father to son. Organ-playing was for him a living sermon in music. At the age of nine Kempff was awarded two scholarships at the Royal School of Music in Berlin, for the study of the piano with the Royal Court Pianist Heinrich Barth and of composition with Robert Kahn, a follower of Brahms and member of the conservative Berling academic circle. In addition he attended school in Potsdam, sang in the choir of the Church of St. Nicholas and played the organ. He saw no contradiction between playing the organ and playing the piano, like his much admired Ferruccio Busoni. His strict piano teacher warned him, however, that the organ would hinder his progress on the piano, advice that he ignored. In 1914 he completed his studies at the Viktoria Gymnasium and in 1916 completed his composition and piano examinations with distinction, twice winning the Mendelssohn Prize. Thereafter he gave concerts as both pianist and organist. In Sweden in 1918 he appeared primarily as an organist. His piano arrangements of Bach’s organ Chorale Preludes should be seen in the light of this close connection with the two instruments, as well as the free transcriptions of music of the eighteenth century that he published from 1931 in the series Music of the Baroque and Rococo, following the model of d’Albert and Busoni.

Kempff’s ability as a composer was apparent early in life. At the age of six he wrote his first composition, which still exists, entered by his father in the “Red Book”. Various early compositions are in Potsdam or were taken away with him. The entire body of his work as a composer is amazingly varied, including all genres, opera, ballet, oratorio, symphonic and chamber music for various ensembles, compositions for organ and for piano, as well as songs. Unlike the majority of pianist-composers of the past and of today he gradually shifted the emphasis of his work from composition to interpretation; eventually, the pianist prevailed over the composer. In his compositions he avoided incursions into new musical territory. They proceed essentially from melodic ideas, from old German folk-music and the songs and dances of other peoples, with attractive and colourful harmonies in a tonal context. Richly coloured works, evoking a mood, stand side by side with strictly elaborated movements, free rhapsodic writing with traditional forms.

Booklet for Arrangements or Transfigurations