Sergei Kvitko plays his piano transcription of Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata for Solo Violin No. 3 “Ballade”
Sergei says: “as far as I know, this is the first and only piano transcription of any of Ysaÿe’s violin music for solo piano. To anticipate the question “why do this transcription, as if there were not enough music for piano”, I can only say that I fell in love with the power, scope, melodic and harmonic complexity, the explosive expressiveness of this piece so much, that I had to “own” it, I wanted to play it (but not badly enough to start learning how to play violin). I have not changed a single note of the original work, but expanded the harmonies, added inner melodic lines, passages, arpeggios, etc., utilizing the enormous possibilities of the piano to deliver the same musical ideas. This is probably one of the most difficult and technically demanding pieces I have ever played, largely due to some ungodly jumps and abundance of tenths that required extreme stretches in both hands.”
Filmed at Molly Grove Chapel, First Presbyterian Church; Lansing MI
Cameras: Jack Schaberg and Bob Kunc
Directed and edited by Sergei Kvitko
From Sergei’s CD “Ad Libitum”, available from Blue Griffin here http://bit.ly/AdLibitum
Or from iTunes here http://bit.ly/17PuWEh