Earl Wild - Complete Transcriptions and Original Works, Vol. 3

EARL WILD (1915-2010): Jarabe Tapatio (Mexican Hat Dance), Transcriptions: Frank Churchill (1901-1942): Reminiscenses of Snow White, George Gershwin (1898-1937): Fantasy on Porgy and Bess, Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Le Rouet d’Omphale, Op. 31, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759): Air and Variations - The Harmonious Blacksmith, Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Dance of the Four Swans from Swan Lake, At the Ball, Op. 38/3.

Description: The Porgy and Bess fantasy works all the best-known themes from the opera into a spectacular half-hour of pianistic devilry and enchantment. Lisztian in scope – and in the use of ‘Reminiscences’ in its title – Reminiscences of Snow White (1995) opens with glistening high-note scales, taking the listener into fairy-tale territories, with fragments of the principal themes of Disney’s movie scattered across the musical texture, most notably ‘Whistle While You Work’. Like Liszt, Wild had the gift of bringing popular music and high art together without compromising either idiom. The album with Wild’s outrageously entertaining transcription of Jarabe Tapatio, otherwise known as the Mexican Hat Dance. Giovanni Doria Miglietta (piano).