Full Concert: Transcription as Translation
In this February 9, 2025 concert livestreamed from the Fisher Center at Bard, TŌN and conductor Leon Botstein perform 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.
0:32 Introductory remarks by TŌN horn player Douglas Nunes
3:48 Mily Balakirev: Chopin Suite
>Read concert notes by TŌN bassist Yu-Cih Chang
29:22 Bedřich Smetana (orch. George Szell): From My Life (String Quartet in E Minor)
>Read concert notes by TŌN violinist Lap Yin Lee
1:02:28 Introductory remarks by TŌN violist Michael Halbrook
1:05:41 Remarks by conductor Leon Botstein
1:13:11 Ludwig van Beethoven (orch. Felix Weingartner): Hammerklavier (Piano Sonata No. 29)
>Read concert notes by TŌN cellist Alfred Western