Dazzling, delightful – and unfairly dismissed: Stephen Hough on the art of the transcription

Pianist and composer Stephen Hough is releasing a new album of musical transcriptions, exploring the history and art of reworking existing music. Hough notes that while transcriptions are common in jazz and hotel lounges, they have historically been viewed with suspicion in classical music circles, sometimes dismissed as lacking seriousness, taste, or even as sacrilegious. He cites Franz Liszt's virtuosic transcription of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" as an example of a work that, while astonishingly delightful, raises questions about its seriousness and tastefulness. The practice of transcription, which involves adapting a composer's work for a different instrument or ensemble, has a long history, with figures like Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms also engaging in it. Liszt's approach, in particular, pushed the boundaries of transcription to such an extent that it nearly led to the genre's collapse due to its extreme virtuosity and embellishments.