It is

Indeed. This transcription is fiendishly difficult to play well.

Actually, no, it isn't. You diminish the time it takes to become an organist; with double and even triple keyboards. Even four on some pipe organs throughout the world in cathedrals. You're either a pianist enjoying Busoni's brilliance here. Or you'll spend a lifetime at the other instrument. Try your hand at Max Regers Variations and fugue on a theme by Bach: composed for the piano. It's similar in it's difficulties. And Max was a organist. Check out that massive fugue. No pedals to concern oneself with in that one. And don't forget Stops to deal with.

not so easy either.

@@arthurhogan3047 it was a joke

😂😂😂

Thank you!

Yes, I pretty much agree - that performance was excellent. I would love to get my hands on (literally) one of those legendary Stuart & Sons pianos some day. I am not sure if there is one somewhere in London which I could hear in a live concert at some point. The closest I have had the privilege of playing to date was a (also fantastic) Bösendorfer imperial grand piano.

Thank you!

@@davidrichardstanhopeI have listened to this rendition, without exaggeration, about 100 times. It's going to be a lot more in the future too, because I want to take the Busoni St. Anne and expand it to a string nontet (4 vln, 2 vla, 2 vcl, and electric 5-string bass!) Seriously David, your playing is remarkable. Thank you for being the only person I've heard play the dotted eighth sixteenth rhythm correctly (that is to say not triplets), thank you for the work you put in to conquer this giant, thank you for uploading your marked copy of the score, and thank you for making this available to the world to enjoy. I have this downloaded so I am never without it when I need it!

@@GryphonWahle From what I have heard on other KZfaq comment sections on music videos that involve the dotted eighth sixteenth rhythm in Bach's music, apparently, rhythms like this would be notated as a dotted eighth note and a sixteenth note as a kind of shorthand for a quarter note followed by one eighth note, in which case the quarter note may be regarded as two triplet eighths tied together. Source: Troeger, Richard (2003). _Playing Bach on the Keyboard: A Practical Guide._ Pompton Plains, New Jersey: Amadeus Press. p. 172. ISBN 1574670840. OCLC 52424125

@@john3260 That's really interesting. Whether or not it's more correct to play the rhythm as two tied triplet 8th-notes followed by a triplet eighth, my preference is the more rhythmically sharp as-written rhythm. Heck- David's performance on this piano is my preferred way to listen to St. Anne. I'm all for period-interpretation of Bach as well as modern adaptations. As long as I'm hearing Bach in the end, it's all good.

Glad you like the piano. It's not that easy to play - 4 pedals are confusing and the extra notes are not coloured differently, which throws out the peripheral vision. I put a couple of dark serviettes over those keys, pushing the left ones out of the way when those low notes came!

I just hope that someday I have the opportunity to play one of these superb pianos

You are welcome!

No worries!

Thank you! Your comments are very kind - makes the hours of practice worthwhile!

No worries! And you clearly know a lot more about organs and organ performances than I. The only organ I ever played was a small electric thing at a tiny church, mostly for weddings, when I was still at school. I never learned pedal technique, too late now.

@@davidrichardstanhope Well, I will not remind anybody of Dr. Paul Jacobs or the late English cathedral organist and recitalist Peter Hurford. This piece is monumental. Truly only a few can really master it, you being one of them. My congregations always enjoyed my playing, so I feel blessed that way. You are a true talent, one of the rare ones who excel both in pedagogue and performance.

Such a kind comment makes all the practice worthwhile - thank you!@@edwardwilliamson1863

Thank you! One of my best, I think (not just better!).

What an amazing feet! Lol

@@henrykwieniawski7233 🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼🦶🏼

Thank you!

That's nice to know!

That is rather difficult to pull off seeing as the piano doesn't have a 32-note pedal board that the performer can draw upon. I agree with you that this is a splendid rendition of one of the big-stop organ pieces. The artful use of mordants and trills really suited this piece well on the piano. Great articulation and phrasing and the dynamic changes were well constructed and executed.

You are very kind, thank you.

幼い頃はお父ちゃまであり、記憶をなくした後は、高校時代の恩師であり、真っ青な雲ひとつない日に、煙になられましたことを思い出していました。 ピアノで弾かれている貴方の演奏を聴くたびに、鮮やかに蘇る風景があります。 配信🎞️、ありがとうございます🙏

Danke sehr!

Chopin-Godowsky Etudes David Stanhope was thinking About Starting Piano as a second Instrument for some time. Your rendition convinced me i should(: i will start tomorrow!

@@notme6820 how’s your progress so far? :)

@@notme6820 Also, thought I should mention, I started piano around the time you did and I can sort of play this transcription! I’m currently working on Bach/Busoni’s Ich Ruf Zu Dir and Wachet Auf ruft uns die Stimme.

Thank you Griffin for your kind words! I think when I decided on the maestoso tempo at the beginning (usually played faster) it seemed logical to do the dotted rhythm as somewhere between a single dot and a double dot. Thus the forward impetus has greater strength and vigour.

@@davidrichardstanhope Out of the dozen or so different recordings I've heard of the arrangement or the original, your maestoso tempo for the prelude vibes the most for me. The articulation and rhythmic distinction both drives the motives and themes forward while comfortably sitting in the pocket. It's really well done. Do you have a CD, vinyl, or digital copy for purchase? Also, is there an existing video, or if not would you consider making a video of you performing it? Finally, I would be infinitely grateful for any words of advice or any other learned wisdom would you part with on my attempt to arrange it into a nontet. It's been a thorn in my mind ever since I first discovered your performance over 2 years ago, I've finally purchased my own copy of the arrangement, and I really am done with theorizing the parts and want to put pen to paper.

@@GryphonWahle The CD is listed at the top. You could order it from the Tall Poppies Records website. I don't think I can return to it just for the sake of making a video. I have some other pieces that I would rather do. For your nonet arrangement, I think it would be best to go back to the original Bach organ score, maybe referring to the Busoni for more ideas. Above all, you must rethink the whole work as if you were creating it yourself for the intended ensemble. You might give attention to balance by doubling instruments on whichever line you think should dominate at any given moment. Good luck!

@@davidrichardstanhope Mr. Stanhope, after years of conceptualizing the arrangement I wrote to you about over a year ago, I finally, once and for all, arranged this titanic work into the string nontet I had envisioned for many years. Your recording was *absolutely* paramount In helping make it happen, for that alone I could never thank you enough. For the kind words and encouragement you gave me long ago, once again I cannot thank you enough. I quite literally finished the arrangement minutes ago, but when I get everything polished out I would love to share a copy of the MIDI file to you! I'm somewhat technologically inept, so that might take some time to learn how to extract all of that. The next hope is to collect an ensemble, perform it, and record it! That dream now seems a little less far off. Thank you so much once again, cheers!

@@GryphonWahle Good luck with the project and I hope your hard work will be rewarded.

I went to an unforgettable Wigmore recital he gave in 1984.

Suppawat Boonrach I love the Java Suite, but I have never learned it. If I do any more recordings, I think the Opus 25 studies and Godowsky versions should come first. But if my fingers hold out I might record Java one day.

@@davidrichardstanhope Really want to see that op. 25!!!

@@mochdrew3364 I'm working on it - next year?

Yes, down to C below

This piece actually does benefit from the G0. Unlike the end of An die Jugend (Epilogo) that is.

No. But he was a marvellous pianist at his best. Tragic life.

davidrichardstanhope I know. I guess his genius came at a cost.

As it says: "non troppo legato", so a detached style is required. It's not very different from staccato!

Three months perhaps? I can't remember. But a lot of the preparation was learning about Bach and how pianists of the past played organ transcriptions. That started a long time ago.

He excluded about 13 measures in total. I counted.

I think this is probably because of the reduced range of the piano compared to the organ these big cascading chord phrases would put the bulk of the piece uncomfortably in the bass registers of the piano.

I could never master the pedals! However, the main value of a transcription such as this Busoni (in my view) is the greater clarity of Bach's musical argument with a more percussive instrument like the piano, including more scope for dynamic expressiveness. Performances on an organ (especially in a resonant acoustic like a church) tend to blur the lines. A pedal harpsichord (again in my view) is often better than an organ if clarity is considered more important than colour.

@@chopin-godowskyetudesdavid9873 Maestro, your talent is undeniable. Truly astounding. I am sure you are a fine organist, too. Your pedal work is probably better than a lot of accomplished church organists. Someone needs not to have the pedal technique of a Cameron Carpenter, Jonathan Scott, Paul Jacobs. or Diane Bish to be a good performer. Harpsichord, which I do love and play, in my opinion, lacks the power for this piece. It would play it cleanly, but since you can't change dynamics on it -- I don't know. Kooperman might pull it off. It does need to be played a bit slower on the pipe organ, particularly in European cathedrals due to the great amount of reverb. Dynamics can be changed by adding or subtracting stops, coupling manuals, or using the shutters on the enclosed divisions. That said, this is about your performance on this absolutely fabulous and resonant piano. It is simply amazing. More than that, your interpretation is beyond description. I am sitting here in jaw-dropping awe of what I just heard.

@@edwardwilliamson1863 You are too kind! But thank you.

​@@chopin-godowskyetudesdavid9873 Thank you for sharing your talent. It was a much-needed listen for me tonight, and I enjoyed it immensely.

I am an organist as well, and while I do play the piano and harpsichord, I wondered how it would sound on a harpsichord due to the lack of dynamics. The nice thing is the harpsichord has great clarity, but one would really have to pay super close attention to articulation and phrasing and the precision of mordents and trills would be of utmost importance. Well, on KZfaq, the harpsichordist, Gerard van Reenen plays this, and it sounds great. But, the piano is percussive and can give this piece gravitas. Maestro Stanhope interprets this piece brilliantly. His articulation and clean, spritely runs really make this a treat to listen to. He really interprets this brilliantly.

+PointyTailofSatan A Godowsky transcription would certainly have made an interesting comparison.

+Chopin-Godowsky Etudes David Stanhope Literally just minutes ago I discovered Godowsky's transcriptions of Bach's Cello suites! OMG! He's like the gift that just keeps giving! lol

Oh dear; no soul.

Thank you!