For those unaware, the latest innovative release from The Orchestra Now (TON) and their founder-conductor Leon Botstein evokes the age-old practice of transcribing music from one set of instruments or voices to another.

Transcription as Translation brings together two rarely heard symphonic transcriptions by two major 20th-century conductors who were eager to perform from the podium some of their favorite non-orchestral works and present them to a wider audience.

Turn of the 20th century Austrian composer and conductor Felix Weingartner had an illustrious international career that included the directorship of the Vienna Philharmonic and regular guest conducting of the Boston Symphony.

He was at the vanguard of the era of acoustic recording and was the first conductor to make commercial recordings of all nine Beethoven symphonies. Weingartner’s Beethoven credentials informed his orchestral transcription of Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Piano Sonata.

EDRICH SMETANA (1824–1884)
orch. George Szell (1897–1970)
String Quartet No .1 JB 1:105 ‘From My Life’
1. I. Allegro vivo appassionato (Romantic longing, and foreboding of misfortune).
2. II. Allegro moderato alla Polka (The merriment of youth; my love of dancing and dance music).
3. III. Largo sostenuto (Memories of the happiness of my first love.
4. IV. Vivace – meno mosso (Joy in discovering how to treat Bohemian national elements in music; the catastrophe of deafness; reminiscences of happier days, and resignation).

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
orch. Felix Weingartner (1863–1942)
Piano Sonata No.29, Op. 106 ‘Hammerklavier’
5. I. Allegro
6. II. Scherzo (Assai vivace)
7. III. Adagio sostenuto
8. IV. Largo – Allegro risoluto

This intensely devoted new recording opens on the Smetana’s String Quartet No .1 JB 1:105 ‘From My Life’ and thus begins on the emboldened Allegro vivo appassionato and then we get the sternly chartered Allegro moderato alla Polka, an aching yearn that grips Largo sostenuto, culminating with the impassioned Vivace – meno mosso.

Along next is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.29, Op. 106 ‘Hammerklavier’ which itself opens on the strident fare of Allegro and then we get brought forth the beautiful ballroom swirls and twirls of Scherzo (Assai vivace), the studious Adagio sostenuto, coming to a close on a near 14 minute opus, the elegantly opulent Largo – Allegro risoluto.

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