Classical Playlist: ‘Siegfried Idyll,’ Rachmaninoff and ‘I Have Set My Hert So Hy’
By Anthony Tommasini
The New York Times
SIEGFRIED IDYLL’
Works by Liszt, Wagner and Brahms; David Deveau, pianist (Steinway & Sons)
There is some misunderstanding today about the 19th-century art of transcribing operatic and orchestral works. As practiced by Liszt, these transcriptions were not show-off pieces, though they require enormous virtuosity. Rather, they refract the original symphonic works and opera scenes through the piano; Liszt invites you to hear the essentials of the music without its orchestral colorings. Many composers in Liszt’s day wrote such works.
On this recording, the pianist David Deveau gives a sensitive account of a fascinating solo piano transcription of Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll,” originally written for chamber orchestra as a birthday gift for Cosima, Wagner’s wife. The arrangement is by Josef Rubinstein, a devoted assistant to Wagner. It’s a revelation to hear this sublime, intimate work played on the piano. The harmonic and contrapuntal intricacies come through with beautiful transparency.
The album also offers refined, accomplished performances of three Liszt works, including “Funérailles,” and a well-chosen selection of seven capriccios and intermezzos by Brahms. (Anthony Tommasini)
Pianist David Deveau plays 'Siegfried Idyll' on debut for Steinway & Sons
by Paula Edelstein, AXS Contributor, August 15, 2015
On his debut for the Steinway & Sons record titled "Siegfried Idyll," pianist David Deveau explores the lives and careers of three musical titans - Wagner, Liszt and Brahms. The seven works Deveau performs are a representative sampling and display a remarkable range of expression that these three masters created during their early and late careers. David Deveau brings his great skills as a pianist and interpreter of solo piano repertoire to these rarely heard arrangements of capriccio, intermezzo with the kind of virtuosity that you enjoy as an enthusiast of classical music.
Another review on 98.7 WFMT, Lisa Flynn's New Releases:
David Deveau’s latest offering explores the interconnectedness of the lives and careers of three musical titans – Wagner, Liszt, and Brahms. The disc includes the rarely recorded solo piano arrangement of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll. The New York Times declared one of Deveau’s recent recitals as, “one of those musical events that linger long in the memory – not for grandeur of effect and not for dazzlement, but for lyric expression that goes straight to the heart of the matter."
