Musicians offer new spin on songs

In the 19th century, one of the main ways people learned the classical repertoire was through transcriptions.

You were as likely to hear the symphonies of Beethoven or the songs of Schubert played on piano as in their original form.

Pianist Michael Baron and soprano Jeanie Darnell will bring this repertoire back to life Saturday, when the Rocky Mountain Music Alliance's season finale presents an unusual double exposure.

"She'll sing the song with me accompanying, and I'll follow with the transcription," Baron said.

"It's a program I've wanted to do for a long time."

Transcriptions lost their luster in the 20th century, partly because of increased opportunities of hearing the music in its original form, and partly because of a Puritanical reaction to the virtuosic excesses of late 19th century pianists.

But transcriptions are making a comeback, and it turns out audiences like them.

"I've always played lots of transcriptions," said Baron.

"I like the old Golden Age pianists, and I studied with Earl Wild," the American pianist who helped rehabilitate the genre.

Baron said he can't resist the lure of playing vocal music arranged for piano.

"As pianists, we play on what we don't like to think of as a percussive instrument," he said.

"Many of us look at the voice as the ideal instrument. That's the challenge for me: to imitate a crescendo on a single note, or a perfect legato."

The program begins with "God Save the King" - known in the United States as "America" - followed by Beethoven's variations on the theme.

There will be songs by Beethoven, Schubert and Alabiev, each followed by Franz Liszt's solo transcription.

"Then we're doing the opposite," Baron said - a group of vocal arrangements of Chopin mazurkas by Pauline Viardot-Garcia, a singer of Chopin's era and one of the composer's close friends.

And they'll end with Ernesto Lecuona's famous "Malaguena," both in the original piano version and in a version with the composer's own lyrics.

"He arranged it for everything," Baron said.

Baron and Darnell will discuss the various works.

"It helps to talk to the audience," he said.

"Especially with a composer like Liszt, where there's so much virtuosity."

He thinks the program will be interesting and fun.

"Unless I'm wrong, and it's boring to hear the same things twice," he said with a laugh.

details

Rocky Mountain Music Alliance presents Jeanie Darnell and Michael Baron

When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Forestgate Presbyterian Church, 970 Northgate Road
Tickets: $15 adults/$10 seniors & students; 484-0192