Wilhelm Popp
Fantasy on Themes from Meyerbeer's Opera Robert the Devil for Piano Trio
The opera Robert the Devil transcriped for Piano Trio? The tradition of transcription has enjoyed a long and honored history. From the very beginning publishers such as Petrucci. Attaingnant and others all offered transcriptions of large scale works in arrangement for piano or small ensembles. With the appearance the opera, the works of such pioneers as Lully were transcribed and arranged for chamber groups. By the time of Mozart it was common place. In the 19th century, virtually all of the great pianists, including such notables as Liszt, Thalberg and Alkan, made and or played transcriptions with virtuoso variations of famous arias. In fact, over half of Liszt's concert repertoire consisted of transcriptions and paraphrases of operas by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Wagner.
Wilhelm Popp (1828-1903) was born in the German city of Coburg. He studied flute with the famous virtuoso and teacher Caspar Kummer and became a virtuoso himself. He was a virtuoso pianist and performed with several orchestras throughout Europe a soloist on that instrument. It is not known with he studied piano. He held the position of Court Pianist and Flautist for the Duke of Coberg and eventually moved to Hamburg where he became principal flautists for the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Most of his compositions were for the flute. A prolific composer of more than 350 works, most, but not all, including the flute, he wrote a fair amount of chamber music and made more than a dozen such transcriptions, mostly of French operas.
In 1895, a collection of four of his transcriptions, entitled Trios dramatique appeared. To appreciate Popp's excellent taste and solid craftsmanship it is not necessary to know the opera, but can be listened to as pure chamber music. The work is so fine, there is no hint that it is a transcription. This is a work not only to be enjoyed at home but in the concerthall. Popp made two versions of the work, one for Violin, Cello and Piano, the other for Flute, Cello and Piano. The Violin and Flute parts are different from each other. (our soundbite for piano trio was made by a bassist and not a cellist)
| (A) Violin, Cello & Piano | $24.95 |
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| (B) Flute, Cello & Piano | $24.95 |
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| (E) All Four Parts | $29.95 |
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