I was introduced to this work by my piano lecturer via what I believe is the only existing recording by Dmitry Feofanov roughly twenty years back. I was immediately blown away. A total onslaught to the senses. I went in search online for a score but all I could find was the original etude by Alkan for solo piano (part of the Op. 39 set). A few years went by and then one day my search yielded something; a facsimile of the handwritten score of Klindworth's orchestrated version on WorldCat. I feverishly downloaded all two hundred and thirty something pages one by one which, considering the bandwidth at my disposal at that time took what felt like forever. Klindworth - who was at one stage the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic - is of course best know for his connection to Liszt and Wagner and his work as editor of amongst others, Chopin's works.

I simply had to learn this concerto and in order to rehearse and maybe perform it, I resolved to create a version with the orchestra reduced for second piano. The score was not too clear everywhere and also called for horns and trumpets in numerous keys (which fell out of use) so I decided to first computer typeset it which would of course allow me to view the score clearly and in concert pitch, thus facilitating my task. Creating the full score version took me many hours a day for many weeks if not months and since my primary goal was to create a version for two pianos I did not bother to add dynamic markings, articulation and so on. My work became increasingly interrupted as life went on and I took a new job. Eventually I worked so sporadically that I felt disinclined to move to the next phase of reducing the orchestra score once I completed it. At some stage a computer crash also caused me to loose the last thirty pages of work or so.

A number of years went by before I felt inspired to tackle the work again but then when I did start I made good progress. I extracted the part of the soloists as soon as I finished a chunk of the full score while I was still working on it and right a way as well as in the time between finishing the full score and beginning the two piano reduction I often played through the piano part for fun. I was delighted with all the clever ways in which Klindworth adapted it to be in the first instance way more friendly for the player than Alkan's original etude (and somehow more streamlined [if I can use such an expression] compared to the often clunky, thick chords that some of Alkan's music suffer from) and in the second place share the material between soloist and orchestra (I'm even of the opinion that the cuts he [Klindworth] made and the little bit of original material he inserted greatly benefits the composition). I was also pleasantly surprised that the work wasn't as difficult as one would expect from something based of Alkan, although of course it has its fair share of challenges.

I completed my own arrangement up to where the last pages of the score was missing but as I progressed I realised that it was way too difficult for the second pianist, playing the accompaniment. So, as happened again and again I put it back on the shelve. Since I started uploading some of my own compositions and arrangements to YouTube more recently, I decided to include the Alkan/Klindworth in my list of intended projects.
When it became time to pick it up again I got to wonder how I would create the sound to go along with my score video. I contacted Naxos for the rights to use their recording with Feofanov but they charge way more than I can afford. So all that was left for me was to use a MIDI export from my notation file. The original score I did lacked all expressions of course so I figured, rather than mess about with that score which was done on an older inferior version of my notation software, I'd redo the full score along with simplifying my piano reduction. This also allowed me to reconsider the use of transposing instruments and things such as layout and fonts for example. I'm also much more skilled at using the software and will struggle much less to get certain jobs done.

I will upload the score videos of my two piano adaptation to the sound of the MIDI from the full score, fully edited and slightly tweaked (as far as the MIDI goes...). I do not wish to spend more hours than what is absolutely necessary to get rid of any really bad sounding bits (in the audio). Once the work is completed I will check and recheck the scores some more and have someone else proofread it as well. So even though a humungous amount of effort and time went into it thus far, I do not claim that it is without fault and I'll make further changes as it suggests itself. As with all my videos I hope sometime to be able to upload a version of this work performed live on two pianos. (I opted to not use a MIDI version of that since a piano require much more editing in MIDI than an orchestra does.)

#Alkan #EtudeOp.39 #Klindworth #PianoConcerto

свернуть