Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Marrige of Figaro - Figaro's piano transcription

i went to Alexender Ghindin's recital last night and his final encore was this Mozart opera Figaro's opening singing's piano transcription. it looks and sounds like a tremendous difficult piece, but Ghindin played it beautifully without a blink. i just wonder who did the transcription? anyone knows?

I'm not sure which part of Figaro you mean. The overture? The first duetto? Figaro's Se vuol ballare? Was it a fantasy or a more literal transcription? How long? I guess he didn't play the Liszt-Busoni fantasy as an encore

You could use the score and a recording (or Youtube) to locate the part you mean.
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/abw8806//

My (and possibly also some other peoples') favorite aria from Figaro is Cherubino's Voi che sapete (wonderfully charming interpretation!), which has a nice little transcription by Thalberg (and is also featured in the big Liszt-Busoni).

This is the Liszt-Busoni. Could that be it? It's a bit big to be done as an encore, but possibly?

http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usi...uber_zwei_motive_aus_Figaro__busoni_.pdf

pianovirus, thanks for the score! i will check which it is. it's definitely the Figaro's solo, as i remember, very fast one, in which he also sing his name (figaro). i will try to locate it in the score or youtube. it has such repeated rhythm: dadada da- dadada da- ...

it's not that short, at least 3-5 minute long, starting and ending with some ultra fast octave/chord passage. i wonder it might be the fantasy you're talking about, since it's very difficult as i watched.

Are you sure you're talking about The Marriage of Figaro or are you talking about The Barber of Seville? Sounds to me like you might be talking about the aria "Largo al Factotum" from The Barber of Seville...

Here's a vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h7qgdaecJQ

I'm not aware of any piano solo transcriptions off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are some out there...

8ude, you may be right. how come i didn't realize it. it might be what you're talking about. i wish i could have recorded it. so, is there a Liszt transcription of that?

Not that I'm aware of. I've heard transcriptions for various instruments (there's one for trumpet that I heard which was pretty amazing), but I'm not aware of any piano solo transcriptions. Could this one have been written by Ghindin himself?

I'd be surprised if there aren't any piano transcriptions of this one - it's too catchy of a tune that someone wouldn't have tried - but I'm not immediately aware of any...

Very good! I think 8ude found it together with you!! It's not from the Mozart opera but as 8ude suggested the Cavatine of Figaro from Rossini's Barber of Seville. There is no Liszt transcription, and I think the only transcription is from Grigory Ginsburg. I have a PDF. PM me if you want it.

As an aside, I just saw on the web site of Ghindin that he also has recorded the big Liszt-Busoni Figaro fantasy (to avoid confusion: this one is about 15 minutes in length and is based on Mozart's opera. Here is an excerpt. There are three comedies by Pierre de Beaumarchais which feature Figaro as a main character: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figaro )

wow, pianovirus, you've been very helpful, so is 8ude! thank you both! i must have got confused when Ghindin was playing it, and he didn't announce any encore pieces actually. he's not only a very virtuosic pianist but a very mature artist with great tone control even when playing the most difficult and fast passages. he played Petrouchka last night, which i thought is simply the best i've ever heard.

definitely, i would like to have the transcription and see how difficult it looks. i'd pm you regarding my email.