Catalogue Connection: 25118

What is the point of listening to a piano transcription of a hugely popular orchestral work? I think the answer is quite simply that it allows the listener to concentrate on the musical detail rather than have the sound of the orchestra wash over them in a huge auditorium. There is an intimacy in this present recording of these two major works that is denied to any orchestral performance. At one time, transcriptions were much more popular than today: think of Liszt’s cycle of the Beethoven symphonies, for example. In an age when it was not possible to hear music on the radio or gramophone or when one was limited to a handful of major orchestral venues it was often the only way people could get to hear these works.

There can be few readers of these pages who have not heard Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s magical score Scheherazade . This symphonic suite, which the composer called a ‘kaleidoscope of fairy tale pictures of Oriental character’, was completed in 1888. The work was first heard in St Petersburg on 18 December of the same year. The Suite was inspired by the Arabian Nights Entertainment which posited a certain Sultan Shahriar who had become suspicious of all women and had sworn to take a new wife each day and dispose of her after their wedding night. Scheherazade, who was finally to become the Sultan’s wife, managed to avoid this fate by relating fantastic stories to her husband, who became so curious to hear how they ended that he allowed her respite day by day until a thousand and one nights had passed and the threat of death was finally lifted.

Rimsky-Korsakov had originally given ‘musical’ titles to each of the four movements – Prelude, Ballade, Adagio and Finale, but abandoned this in favour of the better-known descriptive titles that concert-goers are so familiar with today – ‘The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship’; ‘The Story of the Kalendar Prince’; ‘The Young Prince and the Young Princess’ and finally ‘The Festival of Baghdad-The Sea-The Shipwreck’. The music is given a sense of continuity by the use of two linking themes.

What is not so well-known is that Rimsky-Korsakov produced a four-handed piano score of this work. The liner-notes suggest that he regarded this task as being so important that he postponed work on an opera rather than delegate it to a jobbing musician. The result is a hugely attractive version of this favourite work. There are more than a 120 recordings of the orchestral suite in the current catalogues, however this present recording appears to be the only one of the piano transcription currently available. This performance was originally recorded and released in 1990.

Oriental legends also suffuse Rimsky-Korsakov’s Second Symphony, op.9 ‘Antar’. Antar saves a gazelle from a wicked monster. The gentle creature runs away leaving the hero resting on a grassy slope. Finally he drops off to sleep. On waking, Antar finds himself in a great palace which is the home of the Queen of Palmyra, the fairy Guel-Nazar. The interesting bit of the story is that this fairy is none other than the gazelle that Antar had saved. She promises him the three greatest delights of the world. At this point Antar awakens on the hillside.

Although this work is officially classified as a symphony, it is really a symphonic suite. There are four movements: the first pictures the desert, the rescue and the bestowing of the gifts. The remainder of the work is a consideration of these gifts –The Joy of Vengeance, The Joy of Power and the Joy of Love. The ‘suite’ concludes with Antar’s death. Stylistically this work owes much to Berlioz, Liszt and even Wagner.

The ‘Antar’ transcription is by Nadezhda Purgold (the composer’s wife). She also produced four-hand piano versions of Mussorgsky’s Night on Bare Mountain and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet which have been recorded by the Goldstone/Clemmow team.

I do not know Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar, Symphonic Suite well in its orchestral guise, so I do not really appreciate the appropriateness of the transcription. However, taken at face value this four-handed work is interesting, absorbing and extremely colourful.

The final number on this fascinating CD is the Neapolitan Song, after Luigi Denza (1846-1922), possibly better known as ‘Funiculì Funiculà’ which is played in the composer’s own four-hand version. It is most often heard played by André Rieu these days, but there is a fine orchestral version by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Roger Norrington. The present four-hand piano version is a sheer delight and would seem destined to bring the house down when played as an encore. It is hard to imagine that Rimsky-Korsakov was actually dissatisfied with his arrangement and withdrew it at the last moment. I agree with Anthony Goldstone that the composer’s ‘self-criticism seems unjust’. It makes a great finish to a captivating CD.

Everything about this disc is ideal. The liner-notes, by Anthony Goldstone are most helpful and present a strong case for the playing of these transcriptions. The quality of the sound is clear and vibrant throughout allowing every nuance and detail to be clearly heard. The playing by Goldstone and Clemmow is superb: enthusiasm, subtlety and a concern for the works’ inherent exuberance are perfectly balanced.

There are several piano transcriptions of Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov‘s ‘Scheherazade’, including this one by the composer himself. And even if the piano version cannot reflect the exotic and Oriental character in the same way as the orchestra, this reduction is still very attractive, especially when it is played as in this interpretation, which is a wonderful pianistic achievement, brilliant and colorful through the nuanced expression of the story, the transparency of the two parts, the sophisticated rhythms, fascinating mix of colors and the virtuosity of the duo. The British duo of Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow impresses with a great mastery and a total commitment not merely to demonstrate virtuosity but for the true music. Likewise for the Antar suite and the small song. All three works are equally eloquent and attractive.

In these transcriptions the playing of the outstanding British duo Goldstone and Clemmow is so good and refined, so brilliant and colorful, that we easily forget the lack of an orchestra. The music is superbly recorded and has an overwhelming sound power. *****

New piano duet CDs are two a penny at the moment. This Goldstone-Clemmow Scheherazade is actually a reissue from 1990: playing and synchronisation are technically immaculate and interpretation happily recalls that of orchestral performances. A few features we miss were deliberately left out of the arrangement, Rimsky’s own. The less well-known Antar , Rimsky’s much-revised second symphony (arranged here by the composer’s wife), is a new performance: even deprived of orchestral colour, Goldstone and Clemmow maintain the interest in a piece that can seem over-repetitive. The third piece on the disc is a most entertaining reworking of Denza’s tune Funiculì, Funiculà , a potential encore-piece that duet recitalists should seek out without delay.
4 stars (out of five)

Just listened to the new “Scheherezade” disc – it’s magnificent! I felt like jumping up and shouting “BRAVO” after each movement.

Forget Rimsky for orchestra!! Just grab a copy of this new piano duet disc by Goldstone and Clemmow which combines a 1990 recording of Scheherazade, Opus 35 (still very greatly admired) and the Neapolitan Song Op 63 with a brand new world première recording of the symphonic suite Antar, Opus 9, otherwise known as Rimsky’s Symphony number 2. This transcription for piano duet of a suite every bit as exotic as Rimsky’s better known Scheherazade is by the composer’s wife, Nadezhda Purgold, and the work weaves the romantic, myth-enhanced story in four movements of the real Antara ibn Shaddad, a sixth-century warrior-poet greatly admired for his bravery.

No holds are barred throughout these performances and husband and wife team Tony and Caroline combine to give us a most exciting journey through pieces we may have come to think of only as works for orchestra. Rimsky-Korsakov made this four hand version of Scheherazade himself and about Antar he wrote “My Antar was a poem, suite, fairy tale, story or anything you like but not a symphony”. Add to this Rimsky’s rollicking version of Funiculi-Funiculà and you can rest assured you will not fail to enjoy this disc, which reveals its splendid recording qualities as captured by Divine Art.

This latest work from the husband and wife team of Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow lifts what could be pedestrian pieces of work to a higher level. We can imagine that the pieces on this CD — Scheherazade , Antar and Neapolitan Song — could be banged out by a hack player to make inoffensive background music, but Goldstone and Clemmow give it a zing and sparkle. It’s an enjoyable 77 minutes.

Scheherazade is Rimsky-Korsakov’s most famous work, and is the famous story of the sultana who saved her life by telling the homicidal sultan lots of interesting tales. The opening few moments, down at the bottom of the keyboard, reflect the threat of death hanging over the sultana but after that it’s a chipper set of pieces, starting with the tale of Sinbad. The Neapolitan Song , which is credited “after Denza” but which today would be a plagiarism court case, is a lively number you’ve probably all heard. It is possibly performed by the drunken guests in the Godfather wedding that features in the first film. A pleasing album for piano fans.

Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic poem Scheherazade, written in 1888, is based on One Thousand and One Nights, sometimes known as The Arabian Nights. This supremely romantic work combines two features typical of Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov: dazzling, colourful orchestration and an interest in the East, which figured greatly in the history of Imperial Russia, as well as orientalism in general. Rimsky-Korsakov’s most popular work was used in a ballet by Michel Fokine for the Ballets Russes in 1910 and passages from the suite have been adapted for films and Olympics ice-skating routines. Arrangements have been made for clarinet and piano as well as for brass ensemble and percussion.

Following their critically acclaimed Divine Art CDs featuring transcriptions of works by Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Schubert and Chopin, husband and wife duo Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow have recorded Scheherazade and the little known Neapolitan Song, which the composer unwittingly stole from Luigi Denza thinking it was a traditional folk tune. The transcriptions of Sheherazade are by Rimsky-Korsakov and Antar was transcribed by his wife Nadezhda Purgold, a skilled composer herself. After more than thirty years, Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow can lay claim to be one of the world’s leading piano duos, displaying stunning precision and remarkable musicality.

This top-flight piano twosome conjures scintillating keyboard colours in Sheherazade; Antar is also finely played, and Rimsky’s ‘Funiculì, funiculà’ arrangement is a riot.

Surely Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow are Britain’s finest piano duo. They have made an impressive collection of recordings for Divine Art Recordings to which can be added a recent release of transcriptions of works by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov (1844-1908).

This new disc couples this duo’s earlier recording of Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Neapolitanskaya pesenka with a World Premiere recording of the composer’s Symphonic Suite ‘Antar’ often referred to as his Symphony No. 2 , all in piano duet (four hands) transcriptions.

Scheherazade, Op. 35 is played here in the composer’s own piano duet version. No listener could fail to be impressed by the fine opening of The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship , with Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow bringing a real weight to contrast with the beautifully delicate and poetic passage that follows. They provide a lovely rhythmic sway as Sinbad’s ship takes sail with this duo’s fine precision, bringing so much to this performance as does their silken fluidity. There are some exquisite little phrases with the accuracy between these players quite brilliant. They rise to moments of fine power, bringing a breadth and grandeur that is impressive, beautifully pacing the music right up to the lovely, gentle coda.

As The Story of the Kalender Prince develops one is aware of so many fine colours that are revealed, different with each player. There is a clarity and lightness of touch with many passages that reveal this duo’s fine articulation. They slowly build the drama with finely controlled rubato before a fine conclusion. The Young Prince and the Young Princess brings some lovely fluent playing, fine sweeps of sound and terrific scales with a scented Eastern flavour. This duo bring a lovely variety of colours and textures in the broader passages, full of atmosphere, conjuring up so much of Rimsky Korsakov’s original orchestral brilliance with a lovely little coda.

Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow pull out all the varying moods and atmosphere of the final movement Festival at Baghdad – The Sea with some brilliantly played faster passages. There is terrific accuracy here, lovely sweeps of music with a fine authority and panache. Again they bring so many fine moments with lovely colours, textures and rhythmic turns, the music positively glowing at times before the very fine coda. They receive a first rate recording from the Royal Northern College of Music.

The arrangement for piano 4-hands of Rimsky Korsakov’s Symphonic Suite ‘Antar’, Op. 9 (Symphony No. 2) was made by the composer’s wife Nadezhda Purgold and is given the World Premiere recording here.

The opening of the first movement, The Desert – The Rescue – Gul-Nazar’s Gifts, is developed beautifully as a sense of mystery finally gives way to a lovely melody. The music develops rhythmically, building to a brilliant moment finely played by this duo, who bring a real depth to the textures. They handle all the sudden little rhythmic phrases so well and deliver the flowing melodic passages with such lightness of touch and finely judged forward flow. When Rimsky Korsakov overlays both melodies this duo are a real joy in the way they take each theme. There are some exquisitely delicate moments and finely coloured passages before a very fine coda.

The Joy of Vengeance rises dramatically, with these players revealing some fine harmonies. As they forge ahead they reveal some lovely dissonant harmonies revealing this work to be full of quite advanced ideas for its time, something not so obvious in the orchestral original. Again their accuracy is superb, a quite stunning example of piano duet playing. The coda receives some especially fine, subtle shading.

The Joy of Power brings the timbre of Russian bells before a lovely melody arrives, these players bringing soft, flowing delicacy that nevertheless glows beautifully. The music rises full of breadth and melodic flow before a particularly fine passage where rhythmic and melodic elements overlay.

There is a beautifully laid out opening to the final movement, The Joy of Love – Antar’s Death , with exquisite phrasing and beautifully delicate phrases. This duo is terrific in the way that they can slowly build such passages, subtly developing the music right through to the coda when Antar dies.

Just as I often listen to Rachmaninov’s two piano version of his Symphonic Dances so I will return to this piano duet version of Antar especially when played so finely as in this performance.

This brand new recording made in St. John the Baptist Church, Alkborough, North Lincolnshire, England is first rate.

The Neapolitanskaya pesenka (Neapolitan song) (after Denza), Op. 63 is here given in the version for piano 4-hands by the composer and casts off any melancholy as this famous tune races ahead, full of good humour and fun, these players obviously enjoying it immensely with lively crisp playing and terrific flair.

There are excellent booklet notes from Anthony Goldstone and, as ever, Divine Art’s production standards are first class with a nicely produced booklet.

Conversations about Rimsky-Korsakov quickly lead to comments about his expertise as an orchestrator. In fact, his book Principles of Orchestration remains in print, and continues to be of value to composers who are seeking to develop their art. It seems odd, then, that there would be any inter­est at all in transcriptions for piano duet (one piano, four hands) of two of his most famous orchestral works, even if the transcription of Scheherazade is the composer’s own. However, as Anthony Goldstone points out in the booklet note to this release, “It should be mentioned that the composer considered it sufficiently important to write a four-hand transcription of the work himself, and not to delegate the task, that he interrupted work on an opera for two weeks to do so.” On the other hand, perhaps his reason for doing so had more to do with ready money than with artistic integrity.

In any case, this is a wonderful transcription, in its own way, beautifully written for the piano by a composer whose complete music for solo piano fits on a single CD. (And yes, there’s a piano concerto as well, although it is not common in concert or on disc.) Of course Scheherazade does not have the same impact when it is by played by two pianists on one piano as it does when it is played by a full symphony orchestra. Of course there are losses, but there also are gains, particularly in the score’s quieter sections, and especially when they are played with as much sensitivity and refinement as Goldstone and Clemmow offer us here. Let’s just say, then, that this version for piano duet is not better or worse than the orchestral original —it’s just different.

I love “Antar” as much as I love Scheherazade and so I was very interested to hear how it would sound as a piano duet. Who is the transcriber, Nadezhda Purgold, you might be wondering? She was, as a matter of fact, Madame Rimsky-Korsakov. They married in 1872; by then, he had completed the first version of “Antar,” but he tinkered with it several times over the next three decades. Purgold was an educated musician, and had studied composition and piano at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Zaremba (who also taught Tchaikovsky) and with Alexander Dargomyzhsky, who schooled her in preparing piano transcriptions. Another Purgold transcription is that of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, which Goldstone and Clemtnow recorded for an earlier release. In other words, this “Antar” transcription is an excellent piece of work by a woman who was anything but a dilettante or a publishing house drone, and it is every bit as enjoyable as her husband’s transcription of Scheherazade.

As an encore, Goldstone and Clemmow offer another self-transcription, that of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Neapolitan Song. Like Richard Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov was unaware that Funiculi, Funiculd was not a folk song, but rather a copyrighted work by composer Luigi Denza. After Strauss included it in Aus Italien, Denza sued him. Rimsky-Korsakov was luckier, having withdrawn his souped-up orchestral version of Denza’s song because he was displeased with it. There is nothing wrong with this transcription for piano duet, however. (Those wishing to hear the orchestral version can find it on a PentaTone CD released a few years ago, with conductor Carlo Ponti and the Russian National Orchestra. I have not heard it myself.)

Goldstone and Clemmow’s lengthy list of recordings goes from one highlight to the next, and if you have enjoyed their previous work, you will enjoy this. If you don’t know their work, then be aware that these are first-class pianists with technique that never lets the music down, and with enough good taste to let the music be fun and engaging without cheapening it, making it silly, or turning it into a string of effects. This, then, is a beautiful CD, and anyone who is really into any of these works should be very pleased with it.

It is somewhat surprising that composers who are legendary for their skill at orchestration also made very effective piano transcriptions of their major symphonic works. I hear a lot of Ravel and Stravinsky orchestral works played on the piano (2 and 4 hands). Liszt’s famous transcription of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique was perhaps the earliest major work in this genre. I knew of these Rimsky-Korsakoff transcriptions and have even held an old score of Scheherazade in the arrangement played here.

Again and again in the past decade Goldstone and Clemmow have recorded transcriptions with a great deal of color and variety. They make no compromises in tempo, for example, in Holst’s ‘Mercury’ (Divine Art 24154) or repetitive underpinnings, as in Ravel’s Bolero (Divine Art 25057).

Here we have four hands at one piano. Both Scheherazade (1888) and the Neapolitan Song (1907) were previously released on Gamut in 1991. Antar (1868) was recorded in 2013 and is listed as a world premiere of this version by Rimsky-Korsakoff’s wife, Nadezhda Purgold. The fact that she arranged a number of other works for publication as piano duets and was a fine pianist herself gives rise to at least a suspicion that she may have been the arranger of Scheherazade or at least a major contributor to the version published as Rimsky’s arrangement.

Goldstone and Clemmow offer a tight, colorful performance that is more than six minutes shorter than the previous recording (Trenkner-Speidel; MDG 3301616). MDG’s 2010 recorded sound is better than the 1991 sound here, and I enjoyed the MDG performance as well. But the performance here is better, mainly owing to the more orchestral tempos. They also don’t stretch out the solo violin cadenzas too much. The precision of ensemble and clarity of the many orchestral voices are also to be admired.

Antar is Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Symphony 2 and it exists in several versions: 1868, 1875, 1897, 1903. The first version was transcribed for piano duet, complete with stories for each movement —all in French. It is new to me, but immediately identifiable as cut from the same compositional cloth as Scheherazade.

Neither of these transcriptions are easy for the pianists, and most listeners will admit that Rimsky’s orchestrated versions are better. Nevertheless, there is a clarity to the piano performances that can’t be matched by a full orchestra.

Finishing off the program was a big surprise. A title like ‘Neapolitan Song (after Denza)’ brings Tosti to mind, and meant little to me except that it might be a little encore to the big Russian works. That it was, and the very familiar song ‘Funiculi, Funicula’ came popping out at me. This is not the only time this song was arranged by classical composers. Richard Strauss used it in his symphonic poem Aus Italien and got sued by Denza and had to pay him royalties. Rimsky, like Strauss, thought it was a traditional folk-based tune, and he got away with it. Schoenberg also arranged it for a string quartet. Rimsky’s version is quite good, with some great harmonies; and I can’t imagine a more effective encore piece for two pianists.

This release offers transcriptions for four-hand piano duet of three orchestral works by Rimsky-Korsakov. Two of these arrangements are by Rimsky himself, and the third (of Antar) is by Nadezhda Purgold, a proficient pianist who had studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and was also the composer’s wife. In the 19th century, prior to the age of recording, such transcriptions served an important purpose, allowing the works in question to be heard in the home. What value do these arrangements have today, when one can choose from well over 100 orchestral recordings of Scheherazade and quite a few of Antar! The reduced scoring robs Rimsky of one of his most widely admired attributes, his skill as an orchestrator. Anthony Goldstone’s notes for this recording argue, however, that such transcriptions can “shed a totally new light on music that we all thought we knew intimately,” and in this case I’m inclined to agree, at least in part. With orchestral color stripped away, the piano transcriptions are more revealing of the harmonic skeleton of these works, and listeners are likely to encounter previously unnoticed touches of harmonic color. The question we need to ask is not whether these transcriptions are a substitute for the orchestral originals, which they obviously are not, but whether they are successful as works for piano duet, whether we would find them satisfying on their own, in the absence of knowledge about their orchestral incarnations.

In the case of Scheherazade, I would say that the answer is definitely positive. The fantasy-filled opening pages of “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship” are effectively rendered, and despite the percussive nature of their instrument, the pianists are able to conjure the rolling waves of the sea quite successfully. They are also persuasive in the turbulent pages of “The Kalender Prince.” The love music of the third movement is rendered with affecting but unexaggerated tenderness. Not surprisingly, the pianists are not able to compete with a full orchestra in the final movement’s cataclysmic shipwreck, but they come pretty close. The rest of this colorful movement, rendered with an open texture and incisive attacks, works superbly in the hands of these excellent duo-pianists.

Notwithstanding the much greater popularity of Scheherazade, I have always thought Antar, also known as Rimsky’s Symphony No. 2, the more interesting and involving piece. The composer vacillated on whether the work is a symphony or not, and finally decided to call it that instead a symphonic suite. Given the number of program symphonies and other unorthodox works that are allowed to bear the title, I don’t see why Antar shouldn’t be called a symphony, especially since another Rimsky work is entitled Symphony No. 3, which implies the existence of a Symphony No. 2. Completed in 1868, early in Rimsky’s composing career, Antar was revised in 1875 and again in 1897. According to Richard Taruskin, the score published in 1903 conflated the 1875 and 1897 ver­sions, contrary to the composer’s wishes, so there are in effect four versions of the work. Goldstone’s notes are silent on when Purgold did her transcription and which version she used as a basis. Rimsky’s own memoir reveals that Purgold actually made two transcriptions, one in 1869-70 of the original version and another in 1875 of the newly revised score. I presume it is the latter that we hear on this recording.

Antar works somewhat less well than Scheherazade as a piano transcription. The lack of sus­tained tone undermines its brooding opening, which comes across as choppy and disjointed. The rushing strings at the beginning of the second movement are not so effectively replicated by the os­cillating piano notes that are substituted here, although the rest of the movement goes very well, and elsewhere in this arrangement there is much to enjoy. The clarity of the piano texture compensates for the absence of lush orchestral sound. The noble theme of the hero Antar is equally stirring in its many appearances as it would be in an orchestral performance. The triumphant third movement and the sensuous final one are convincingly rendered. Here, as in Scheherazade, the playing of Goldstone and Clemmow is very accomplished, sensitive or highly charged as required, with incisive attacks and clear, precise articulation.

The three-minute Neapolitan Song rendered here is a transcription of Rimsky’s own orchestral transcription of the popular Italian song Funiculi, funicula, by Luigi Denza. It is a pleasing trifle in either orchestral or four-hand piano garb.

Only the Antar transcription is claimed to be a premiere recording, but I have not found any other currently available recordings of the other two. Fine print in the booklet informs us that the Scheherazade recording is not new. It dates from 1990 and was originally issued on the Gamut Classics label. I have few complaints about its sound quality, although the more recently recorded segments have a little more spaciousness, color, and bass presence. The piano tone is generally well defined in all the pieces, but a bit of ringing is occasionally audible.

I found this disc very enjoyable and in some ways revealing, and I recommend it to those who, as Goldstone suggests, would like to experience these works in a “totally new light.”