TALL POPPIES RECORDS New and classical music by Australian composers and performers

Galop!: Virtuosic Orchestral Transcriptions

Stanhope is one of the very few Australian composers who takes on the challenge of transcribing piano works for orchestra. Composers once did this themselves to open other performing paths for popular pieces. Imagination, craft and creativity make the results thrilling.

David Stanhope composer
Franz Liszt composer
Leopold Godowsky composer
Sergei Rachmaninoff composer
David Stanhope orchestral transcriptions

This is a serious orchestral “show-off” disc: virtuoso transcriptions that put brilliant piano writing into full orchestral colour.

The major works were originally written for piano or two pianos. The Liszt and Godowsky pieces are rarely heard because of their extreme difficulty, while the Rachmaninoff (although well-known) may have been intended as a future orchestral work. My orchestral transcriptions are intended to shed light on brilliant or beautiful music that is either neglected or shows the possible intent of the composer. The two short pieces of mine attached as encores were originally written for the Asian Games of 2006.

Artists

No photograph: David Stanhope and his Orchestra

David Stanhope and his Orchestra

David Stanhope and his Orchestra is the digital orchestra the Australian composer and conductor uses to realise full orchestral scores in the studio. It brings unperformed concertos and neglected virtuoso piano works into recorded form.

No photograph: David Stanhope

David Stanhope

David Stanhope is an Australian conductor, composer and pianist whose career also takes in horn and bass trombone. He has led opera, ballet, film scores and orchestras across Australia, and is widely known for his wind-band and brass writing.

Photograph of Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic era. His vast output reshaped piano technique, invented the symphonic poem and pushed harmony toward the twentieth century.

Photograph of Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky

Godowsky's Studies on Chopin's Études turn already demanding pieces into labyrinths of counterpoint, left-hand bravura and interlocking textures. His Passacaglia and Schubert song paraphrases share the same dense, glittering pianism.

Photograph of Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music.

Tracks

Franz Liszt
— Galop in A Minor

Leopold Godowsky
— Mouvement Mélancolique
— Passacaglia

Sergei Rachmaninoff
— Suite No. 2, Op. 17

David Stanhope
— The Promenade March
— Grand Fanfare

Performer

Where to listen

Galop!: Virtuosic Orchestral Transcriptions is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.

Product details

Catalogue number
TP265
Label
Tall Poppies
Category
Great Classics
Genres
Orchestral & Concerto, Romantic & Impressionist

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