The same general idea is at work here, with the added obstacle that playing all of the notes of this piece accurately is marginally harder than a Mozart sonata. Putting the score on the stand and having three staves staring back at you instead of the usual two was a psychological obstacle, I've got to say. But one comes to realize that it really can't be done any other way. The top staff is the melody, which looks appropriately clean. The bottom staff takes care of the important bass notes. That leaves the delicately churning accompaniment for the middle.
Having three staves is less of a problem, of course, than having two hands with which to attack the notes written on them. The simple solution, one which the music editor explicitly recognized, is that the notes of the middle staff alternate between the right and left hands. How do you know when to play with which hand?Just lo
ok at the direction of the stem on the sixteenth notes. If the stem points up, the right hand takes it. If the stem points down — that is, if it looks upside down — it's played with the left hand. Fascinated? Watch Nelson Freire's video two paragraphs down!This is a famous transcription by the Italian pianist-composer Giovanni Sgambati, a contemporary of Brahms. History has not been too kind to him, as he's best known for this quick little encore, moving though it is. Actually, I think his original piano music is very effective (problem is, it's been championed by the pianist Pietro Spada, who might be too mechanical for his dead beneficiary). Anyhow, the Mélodie is a beautiful transcription of the "Dance of the Blessed Spirits" from Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice. (If you've think you've seen the name before, Mozart mocked his music in the tavern scene in Amadeus as being too boring.) At about four minutes it just begs to be placed at the end of recitals as encores, which it is.
If you're in the market for professional recordings, my strongest recommendation is to pursue a live performance. My first choice is Earl Wild (the disc is out of print, but in my view well worth the $25 an Amazon seller asks for the two-disc set). Maybe not accidentally, his and my recording times are identical (4:24). Another recording I like is the Brazilian artist Nelson Freire, who used just three and a half minutes of tape. It's much, much faster — but it works. Here is a video of that performance; you'll have to skip ahead to 3:50.
If Mozart really said that Gluck's music was boring, the Mélodie wouldn't be my first counterargument. But what it lacks in imaginativeness (which is now a word, by the way — not to be confused with imagination), it makes up in power.
mp3 | score
