The Piano Transcriptions of Ignaz Friedman

Piano Transcriptions of Ignaz Friedman

The pianist Ignaz Friedman was an outstanding artist of his day and a highly regarded teacher. He compiled a fine repertoire of piano transcriptions which helped to popularise the works of many composers who had not previously been well known for their music in concert. He was particularly adept at bringing out prominent features of a melody with elaborate cross-hand effects, and he was also able to provide striking orchestral timbres and textures.

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Friedman’s own compositions included numerous piano pieces, as well as songs and chorales, but he was especially distinguished by his piano transcriptions of the work of other composers. These he made in order to enhance the piano’s repertory of melodies and to promote the music of other writers for the benefit of public taste. He transcribed the works of Beethoven and Liszt with particular skill, using his own keyboard technique to enrich their sound by means of a variety of techniques such as sforzatos and other chordal effects, and by varying the scale and form of the music.

His transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies and his operatic fantasies and paraphrases were also of exceptional quality. He was a man with great historical curiosity who had a deep understanding of the musical legacy of the past and he wished to bring its beauty into the living rooms of his contemporaries.

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The Piano Transcriptions of Ignaz Friedman

One of the great examples of this is his transcription of Schubert’s songs, which brought their beauty and charm to a much wider audience. He adapted the original melodies to his own piano style, not by over-elaborating them as did Brahms, but by combining accompaniment and harmony with the full line of melody, sometimes using doubling and other effects and sometimes giving rise to free fantasy, yet always retaining the core melodic substance of the songs themselves.

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Amongst the other fine examples of his skill in this field are his transcriptions of Wagner’s operatic themes. These he did when the ink was barely dry on the originals, and he demonstrated a remarkable inventiveness in preserving both the vocal line and the rich orchestral accompaniment. He also succeeded in adding to the musical depth of these works by the use of added parts and figurations which relieved the often threadbare music of Italian operas of this period.

His ability to create these piano arrangements of symphonic music and song melodies with such virtuosity and elegance has rarely been equalled or excelled. His appreciation of the possibilities of the piano as a musical instrument was unparalleled, and his sense of sonority enabled him to add a variety of orchestral sounds and timbres and vivid textures to the piano’s repertory of melodies.