Tchaikovsky: Rare Transcriptions

(Divine Art)

The very word "transcription" raises the hackles and fuels the ambivalence levels of some music lovers: "it's a compromise" and "it's simply not quite the real thing" are just two of the standard reactions from serial doubters. I will refrain, in this small space, from reciting the honourable history of composer-authorised transcriptions, and point listeners to the latest release from pianist Anthony Goldstone, an underrated musician with an unrivalled pedigree in his tireless championship of the art of the transcription: his two-piano performance, with wife Caroline Clemmow, of Taneyev's arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony is a classic of the genre. Now here, on his own, he plays a thumpingly effective version of the Marche Slave, Tchaikovsky's own compelling arrangement of themes from The Voyevoda and other rarities culminating with a magnificent account of the Serenade For Strings which completely defies expectations and comes brilliantly and sonorously to life in the hands of this consummate expert and masterly technician.