TRANSCRIPTIONS FOR PIANO

It’s a great honour to be asked to contribute a few words to introduce this splendid CD Wagner recital: Camiel Boomsma has rightly decided that Wagner’s original piano music simply does not do him justice. But there is an abundant literature - from Liszt, writing when Wagner’s ink was scarcely dry on the manuscript, to present-day composers and performers - of piano transcriptions, fantasies and paraphrases on Wagner’s greatest works. The tradition of the operatic fantasy, or of variations on operatic arias, is centuries old, and serves both as a mark of respect to the original composer, and also as a means to promulgate the original pieces. Wagner needs to further help of this sort; his position in the canon of the great is assured. However, there is much pleasure to be had from playing and hearing the great Wagner operas on the piano - and Wagner himself encouraged it!

Camiel Boomsma has assembled a magical programme of old and new, familiar and unknown Wagner arrangements which is as delightful as it is edifying.

Dr. Leslie Howard

Camiel Boomsma
The young Dutch pianist Camiel Boomsma appears regularly in concerts both in the Netherlands and abroad with great critical success. He has won various prizes in national and international competitions and has been awarded a bursary by the Richard Wagner Stipendienstiftung in recognition of his great affinity for Wagner’s music. Camiel Boomsma has a large repertoire and is able to create highly original links between the works of Richard Wagner and of other composers. He has frequently performed in radio broadcasts, including live appearances in AVRO’s programme Spiegelzaal from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.