Complete Bach Transcriptions for Solo Piano

by Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt's transcriptions of other composers' music are as highly regarded as his original piano works. Some listeners — Schumann among them — consider Liszt's painstaking transcriptions to be completely new works. Using his gifts for fathoming the deepest meanings of a given piece, Liszt also created a uniquely revealing work. In addition to drawing attention to composers and works that would otherwise have remained unknown to a wider public, Liszt's piano transcriptions introduced the instrument to uncharted for the first time, a keyboard could be used to reproduce the sound of any instrument. The composer brought numerous innovations to the practice of piano playing to achieve the richness and color of the original works, from the technique of hand crossing to revolutionary changes in the use of the pedals.
First acquainted with the works of Bach through his piano studies, Liszt further explored the earlier composer's works in his career as a virtuoso performer. His piano interpretations of Bach's organ music are executed in a simple and straightforward manner, and they rapidly became the classic models for all future works in this genre. This compilation, featuring such famous and well-loved works as Six Organ Preludes and Fugues (BWV 543–548) and the Fantasy and Fugue in G minor (BWV 542), attests to their enduring power and beauty.

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2003

About the author

Franz Liszt (1811, Doborján, Hungary - 1886, Bayreuth, Germany)(Hungarian: Ferencz Liszt, in modern usage Ferenc Liszt, from 1859 to 1865 officially Franz Ritter von Liszt) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher. He was also the father-in-law of Richard Wagner.

Liszt became renowned throughout Europe for his great skill as a performer during the 1800s. He is said to have been the most technically advanced and perhaps greatest pianist of all time. He was also an important and influential composer, a notable piano teacher, a conductor who contributed significantly to the modern development of the art, and a benefactor to other composers and performers, notably Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz.

As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the “neudeutsche schule” (“New German School”). He left behind a huge and diverse body of work, in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony.