August Stradal Explained
August Stradal (17 May 1860, Teplice – 13 March 1930, Krásná Lípa) was a Czech virtuoso pianist, arranger, composer, author and music teacher.
Career
A piano arranger with diverse interests, Stradal arranged music from Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Buxtehude, Liszt, Mozart, Paganini, Purcell, Reubke, Strauss, Wagner and Vivaldi.
A student of Anton Bruckner, he made solo piano arrangements of that composer's symphonies 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8. His pianistic credentials included studies with both Theodor Leschetizky and Franz Liszt, with whom he studied from late 1884, appearing in the latter's master classes in Weimar, Rome, and Pest, where he played some of Liszt's most difficult works. He arranged Liszt's 13 Symphonic Poems. He received the Czechoslovak State Award in 1928.
Selected works (solo piano)
- Bach - Organ sonata in E minor
- Bach - Second Organ Concerto
- Bach - Brandenburg Concertos nos.3 and 4
- Bach - Piano Concerto in F major
- Bach W.F. - Fantasy and Fugue in A minor
- Beethoven - String Quartet, Op.131
- Brahms - 3 Caprices after the Waltzes, Op.39
- Bruckner - String Quintet in F major
- Buxtehude - Passacaglia in D minor
- Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in A minor
- Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in D minor
- Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in E minor (no.2)
- Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in F major
- Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in F♯ minor
- Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in G minor
- Buxtehude - Prelude in E minor
- Liszt - Dante Symphony
- Transcriptions of all 13 of Liszt's Symphonic Poems
- Liszt - Faust Symphony
- Liszt - Es muss ein Wunderbares sein
- Mozart - Symphony no.40
- Mozart - Canzone on The Marriage of Figaro
- Paganini - Bravoure Study on Caprices
- Purcell - Chaconne
- Reubke - Sonata on the 94th Psalm
- Stradal - Abenddämmerung
- Strauss J - Concert paraphrase on the waltz "Dorfschwalben aus Österreich"
- Wagner - Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond (from Die Walküre); Der Ritt der Walküren (from Die Walküre); Schluss des letzten Aufzuges (from Die Walküre) Waldweben (from Siegfried); Rheinfahrt aus dem Vorspiel (from Götterdämmerung); Trauermusik aus dem letzten Aufzug (from Götterdämmerung); Wesendonck-Lieder.
- Vivaldi / J.S. Bach - Organ Concerto in D minor
References
