{"id":75,"date":"2017-03-30T14:48:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T03:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ozartsreviewonline.com\/oz\/?p=75"},"modified":"2018-06-06T14:52:49","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T04:52:49","slug":"the-operatic-pianist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ozartsreviewonline.com\/oz\/the-operatic-pianist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Operatic Pianist"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Andrew Wright (piano)<\/h2>\n

Divine Art dda 25113<\/h2>\n

TPT: 64\u201948\u201d<\/h3>\n

reviewed by Neville Cohn<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>During the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century, there was a remarkable flowering of operatic composition. It met a huge popular demand and every European city of significance built an opera house to cater for the genre\u2019s enthusiasts. But for opera lovers living in small towns, say, or in villages, there was almost no opportunity to experience opera, apart from, perhaps, a visit from this or that small touring company. To counter this shortage \u2013 or complete absence \u2013 of opera beyond the big cities, pianists responded to this need by incorporating into their recitals arrangements of operatic excerpts, most frequently a favourite aria, say, or this or that overture or dance episode.<\/p>\n

This was a successful development and some pianists were able to maintain careers based largely on these operatic offerings.\u00a0 And until radio and recordings made opera more widely available, operatic extravaganzas at the keyboard kept many pianists very busy on the concert circuit.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, operatic excerpts in piano recitals are rare \u2013 and Andrew Wright is one of the few musicians to maintain the tradition. This fascinating CD includes not only 19th-<\/sup>\u00a0century operatic extracts but some composed by Wright himself.<\/p>\n

They make intriguing listening.<\/p>\n

Operatic extracts for piano solo or piano duet were also very popular in the drawing rooms of wealthy homes in European cities. This was especially so for young ladies for whom some accomplishment at the piano was considered desirable in the marriage stakes.<\/p>\n

Numbers of significant composers made arrangements of grand opera for piano solo, the most famous being Liszt. His versions of extracts from Wagner\u2019s operas are still\u00a0 occasionally encountered in piano recital programs. Israeli conductor Asher Fisch recently brought out a memorable CD of piano arrangements of Wagnerian opera extracts.<\/p>\n

During much of the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century and up until the 1920s, virtuosic arrangements of this type were an ineradicable feature of just about every pianist on the international concert circuit.<\/p>\n

But in broad terms, the age of virtuoso arrangements for piano of operatic extracts is largely past \u2013 but there\u2019s a good deal to be said in positive terms of Andrew Wright\u2019s CD \u201cThe Operatic Pianist\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the grand tradition of pianists playing their own arrangements of excerpts from this or that opera, we can listen to Wright\u2019s own keyboard versions of extracts from, inter alia, Meyerbeer\u2019s Robert le Diable\u00a0 in which he seems positively to revel in the many challenges posed by music that was never intended to be played on the piano. I think Meyerbeer would have been chuffed no end by Wright\u2019s keyboard arrangement. It\u2019s a winner.<\/p>\n

Listen to the version of Casta Diva from Bellini\u2019s Norma, here in an arrangement by\u00a0 Sigismund Thalberg (no mean pianist himself). It is most beautifully played, its inherent simplicity of line presented with most appealing tone quality. Wright is no less persuasive in an arrangement of one of Wagner\u2019s most loved arias: The Evening Star from Tannhauser. And the aching beauty of Liszt\u2019s version for piano of Isolde\u2019s Liebestod is splendidly revealed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n