Transcription as Translation

Part of TŌN’s Carnegie Hall series

TŌN performs three orchestral transcriptions of works by master composers Beethoven, Chopin, and Smetana. In 1910, the last year of his life, composer Mily Balakirev transcribed four pieces into an orchestral suite to celebrate the centenary of Chopin’s birth. To honor another centenary in 1927, that of Beethoven’s death, Austrian conductor and composer Felix Weingartner was moved to make a full orchestration of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29, the Hammerklavier. And while teaching composition at Mannes College of Music in 1940, acclaimed conductor George Szell created an orchestral transcription of Smetana’s E-minor String Quartet, From My Life.