The Operatic Pianist
Andrew Wright (piano)
Impressive playing as Andrew Wright walks in the footsteps of the 19th-century pianist-composer giants, including some no-holds-barred creations of his own.
The Operatic Pianist
Andrew Wright (piano)
Purchase product
Impressive playing as Andrew Wright walks in the footsteps of the 19th-century pianist-composer giants, including some no-holds-barred creations of his own.
About
This disc focuses on the art of transcription and paraphrase. In the mid-19th century such works held a much more prominent place in musical life than nowadays, when they have largely been consigned to the realms of historical footnotes. In the developing era of the travelling virtuoso, and predating the gramophone, these pieces served two principal functions. Firstly, they enabled familiar (typically operatic) themes of the day to be heard without the necessity of visiting the opera house itself, and secondly, they provided the pianist with attractive material for public performance.
Over the last few years, Andrew Wright has performed regularly in public, giving concerts in Scotland and the north of England. His arrangement of ‘Casta Diva’ was used on the soundtrack in an Australian Documentary programme ‘Compass’.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
May 2014
Impressive playing as Andrew Wright walks in the footsteps of the 19th-century pianist-composer giants, including some no-holds-barred creations of his own.
9th March 2014
Thalberg's Concert Fantasy on La Traviata makes a gripping centrepiece — not least because of an immensely sustained high trill — alongside Liszt’s glorious version of Isolde’s Liebestod. And his rendering of Bellini’s aria Casta diva sounds like a Chopin nocturne, fascinatingly reversing the direction of influence.
