No.5-1 J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto (arr. Stradal, 1920s?)

August Stradal (1860-1930) was a Bohemian pianist and music teacher. He studied the piano with Liszt as one of the latest pupils and the composition with Bruckner. The amount of his transcriptions is huge: All symphonic poems by Liszt; More than half of symphonies by Bruckner; Almost all organ works, all Brandenburg concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach.According to Mark-Andre Roberge, the number of his transcriptions is over 250(https://docslide.com.br/documents/from-orchestra-to-piano-major-composers-as-authors-of-piano-reductions-of.html I don't know whether Roberge counts each pieces the cycles of Organ works like Orgelbuchlein or not, though). And according to Aryeh Oronamong, over 100 is on J. S. Bach (over 20 of them remain in manuscript, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/PT-Stradal.htm)

Today his transcriptions have been almost forgotten or neglected, for one reason that such type of transcriptions had been no more demanded even in the first half of the 20th century due to the appearance and development of the recording technique, and for another reason, they were simply bloody hard to play. But just since the 2010s his transcriptions begin to be recorded comprehensively: The professional pianists like Risto-Matti Marin, Jean Dube and Juan Guillermo Vizcarra have recently released recording on some of the excerpts from Wagner's opera and the complete recordings of Liszt's symphonic poems. However, almost all his transcriptions of J. S. Bach remain unrecorded as of 2018.

These transcriptions of all Brandenburg Concertos is also monumental and hard. There are many complex and polyphonic voices, and the fast octave passage in the low voice should be played in the left hand. According to Hiroyuki Tanaka, a Japanese amateur researcher of transcriptions of J. S. Bach for piano, suggests that the plate number of the scores from J. Schberth (the already bankrupted-publisher in Leipzig) show that this series of transcriptions were made in the latest years of Stradal: the 1920s.

No matter how hard they are, it is fun to play if we can just play them, reflecting his high musical education. I hope the authentic professional recording and the comprehensive publication of Stradal's transcriptions of the works not only by Bach but also by all will come into being and be studied both in practical and academical level.

Note

1) In my opinion, many of his directions of pedaling are quite questioning. among them the most extreme is "senza Pedale" in the hardest sections (If Stradal stands aside me I would beat him). So I ignore half of them in order to reproduce the sound of the original work properly.

2) Some of the interactive partings of tones between the right and left hand are also questioning and unreasonable and I changed it. I guess that Stradal himself couldn't play it in tempo or didn't play so much.

3) The tempo is the main issue to play the works of J. S. Bach, and it is still more important when it comes to the transcriptions by Stradal. Of course, in terms of period-instruments, the recent major interpretation of tempo is being faster and faster, however, it would be the hell if we try to play in such a fast tempo. So I played in 84-88 bpm.

Видео No.5-1 J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto (arr. Stradal, 1920s?) канала Barbaro Mr.