Siegfried Idyll -- Transc. for piano quintet

[chamberUK]

There's a fine transcription for solo piano on IMSLP by Joseph Rubenstein (simpler and much more idiomatic, as you might expect, than Glenn Gould's transcription published by Schott in 2003).

The front page of the Rubinstein transcription has a list of other transcriptions:

Piano duet
2 pianos, 4 hands
Piano, violin, cello and harmonium (or 2nd piano)

... and a version for piano quintet (2nd cello ad lib) by a fascinating man called Alfred Pringsheim (1850-1941): good Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Pringsheim. An ardent wagnerite, he helped Wagner out financially, and made other Wagner transcriptions. He apparently had a hard time in pre-war Germany, and managed to get out in 1939, but died shortly after in Switzerland.

All these transcriptions would be fun, but I'm particularly interested in the piano quintet version.

[daphnis]

That would be interesting to see, however this transcription is fairly rare--only a couple libraries in the US even have a copy, and those may be in restricted collections.

[chamberUK]

Thanks. I'd be very grateful if you could let me know where they might be held. They're out of copyright, so I might be able to persuade someone to sell me a photocopy or scan.

It would be interesting to hear the arrangements, especially those with harmonium. Presumably they were written around the time of the Society for Private Musical Performance, in which a harmonium was frequently used. In London, the Nash Ensemble frequently performs these transcriptions at the Wigmore Hall. Next month they're playing Schoenberg's arrangement of Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, and next week Erwin Stein's arrangement of Zemlinsky's Maeterlinck Songs.

They didn't seem to be inhibited in any way by the scale of the original work eg Stein's arrangement of Mahler's 4th symphony. I expect there are other Wagner arrangements.

[daphnis]

I think I saw one at Harvard and another at U of Michigan.

[kalliwoda]

In the EU you can find another copy in Italy (http://opac.internetculturale.it) at Biblioteca Palatina in Parma, and SBB Berlin has a copy:
http://musikipac.staatsbibliothek-berli ... 1&cop=:osy
- and the Quartet with harmonium is on the preceding catalog card.

[jfarrington]

We digitized one of the 2-piano 4-hand arrangements we have (the one by Hermann Behn, published by Schott's). You can find it here: http://hdl.handle.net/1802/10496. We're in the process of digitizing Joseph Rubinstein's 4-hand arrangement.

[chamberUK]

Jim

Thanks. Astonishing, and I look forward to the piano duet version!
The German and Italian intranet links didn't allow me in, but the Loeb Music Library at Harvard has a copy of the quintet version. Thanks for all the helpful ideas; much appreciated.

David

[kalliwoda]

I am not sure why you have problems to see the catalog cards at SBB
You can also look at it here:
http://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/die-s ... ekataloge/
Katalog I is the main card catalog, Katalog II are new purchases in West Berlin and some items cataloged when they where requested by patrons.

But if you check back in a little while, I was able to photocopy the Piano Quintet version yesterday and will post in a few weeks. SBB have cheap do-it-yourself copiers but no scanners yet...

[chamberUK]

You're quite right. I wasn't being precise. I could view the catalogue card for the Berlin version, though I couldn't get into the Italian intranet at all. However, I couldn't follow the instructions, even in Google translation, to get a copy from Berlin -- but I'm delighted that you will post the score and parts in due course.

David

[Zarza Mora]

I am searching too the partiture and parts from Siegfried Idyll by Wagner-Pringsheim. But I have not had a reply from the Biblioteca Palatine of Parma. I don´t understand german and can´t enter in Berlin biblioteck. Someone can help me to have this partition? Thank you. My english is very bad. Hope you understand me!

[kalliwoda]

Excuse me for having this for so long on the to do list - however, it may take me another 2-3 weeks, until I will get to it.

Regarding SBB: You don't need to understand german or navigate the website (not that easy, I know...)
Just send an email in english with your request to the music department (Musikabteilung): musikabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de
and they will answer in english.

If you are considering to pay for digitizations, just keep in mind that they charge a flat fee for every order, and the first ten pages are more expensive then the remainder of an order - so you can save by combining orders for several works.

[chamberUK]

Zarza Mora

I couldn't make contact with a librarian through the German or Italian sites either, though I tried. The latest address may help.

In the end daphnis' suggestion was sound: there is a copy in the Harvard music library. I easily made contact, with Evelyn Santana-Nola, and she sorted it out. Email: santana@fas.harvard.edu.

They offer two options: access to a digitised version on their server, or a paper copy. For this score, the paper version was better. The score isn't of good quality, with yellow paper, and small noteheads, so I couldn't get an easily readable version from their own scan. But the paper version, for which they charged $25 via FedEx, which I thought was reasonable, was fine, and I was able to enhance the contrast and enlarge it to A4 (the Americans really hate the Europeans, even down to their paper sizes).

We ran through it last week, and it is a reasonable arrangement, though needless to say, as a pianist, I didn't think there was enough piano! It's a complex work, so we'll need to work on it. I was surprised that my excellent string playing colleagues weren't familiar with the work, and didn't seem too comfortable with the string writing -- though the core of the work is strings, even in the original. There's an optional part for second cello.

I'd be interested to hear what you think of it. If anyone knows of any other transcriptions like this, for piano trio/quartet/quintet, please let me know.

David Levy
London

[Zarza Mora]

Thanks Kalliwoda for your answer and the idea of writing to the Berlin bibliotek , I did it yesterday.
Parma´s Biblioteca Palatina wrote me. They have a very old score and it can not be fotocopied only photos are allowed and only two persons can do it. I think it may be very expensive!!

Thanks David for your suggestion to write to Evelyn Santana-Nola. I´m doing it in a while. I hope it would be possible to have the paper version as you. And I would certainly write to you when I have it, and tell you about it.

Zarza Mora

[Zarza Mora]

Hi David Levy!

I have not received an answer from Mrs. Evelyn Santana-Nolan (I wrote her one weak ago) and the Berliner Bibliotek wrote me they have the score but they cannot send it to me before 8 weeks, two months is too much for me!!
In this situation, I wonder if yo can help me yourself since you told me you have the score.
I wait hopefully for your answer

Zarza Mora

[chamberUK]

Try the librarian herself, rather than the transcription services person: lisavick@fas.harvard.edu.

David