The Alexander Siloti Collection (Paperback)

by Alexander Siloti (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
One of the least known of the great Russian pianists of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, Alexander Siloti

(1863-1945) was one of the most influential and progressive. As a concert promoter, he introduced the music of dozens of composers to the Russian public in the famous Siloti Concerts of 1903-1917, including Albeniz, Debussy,de Falla, Delius, Elgar, Enesco, Mahler and Schoenberg.

A student of Liszt (and one of the teachers of Rachmaninoff), Siloti is a central figure in the development of the great age of the piano virtuoso. As with many of his colleagues, transcribing and arranging existing music for the piano was a major part of Siloti's activity, and since he made no recordings, his published transcriptions are one of the few existing keys we have to his musical taste and philosophy.

In an extended biographical essay, Dr. Charles Barber explores this issue and writes cogently about the style and influence of this remarkable man. The Alexander Siloti Collection is dominated by Siloti's remarkable transcriptions and arrangements of the music of J.S. Bach, notable particlarly for their pianistic character and faithfulness to the unique "genetic code of Bach's design."

Some of the Bach works includes are: Prelude in B Minor, BWV855a, Gigue from Suite in Bb Major, Chaconne in D Minor, the Organ Preludes in E Minor and G Minor and the Celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565.

Music by Gluck, Mozart and Chopin is also contained in this generous compilation of pianistic wizardry.

This addition to the Master's Collection is likely to be one of the most talked about piano folios of the year.

(288 pages, symthe sewn binding).

About the Author
Alexander Siloti

The Prize Student of Lizst and Teacher of Rachmaninoff

If all that could be said about Alexander Siloti (1863-1945) was that he was a prize student of Liszt and teacher of Rachmaninoff, that would be enough to stake claim for him in music history. But in fact, Siloti was, perhaps, as gifted a pianist as Russia has ever produced.

He was a student of Tchaikovsky, of Nikolai and Anton Rubinstein, Hubert, and Taneyev. At Weimar he studied with Franz Liszt who nicknamed him ‘Silotissimus’ in honor of his extraordinary keyboard skills.

For years, he concertized across Russia, Europe, and America, and earned stunning reviews. He and Tchaikovsky toured Europe together; taking turns conducting and playing Tchaikovsky’s first and second piano concerti. Two decades later, he and Rachmaninoff would do the same with the latter’s new compositions. Siloti also often performed in recital with such artists as Casals, Ysayë, and Chaliapin. Such was Siloti’s stature as a pianist that Liszt, Stravinsky, Godowsky, Arensky, and Rachmaninoff dedicated new music to him.

Besides being a premier pianist, Siloti was also an accomplished conductor, impresario, mentor, and leader of a whole musical generation.

In the Siloti Concerts of 1903–1917, based in St. Petersburg, he brought to his public such artists as Casals, Sibelius, Glazunov, Enesco, the Casadesus family, Josef Hofmann, Carl Flesch, Chaliapin, Scriabin, Ysaÿe and Prokofiev. In the same series, his guest conductors included Albert Coates, Mottl, Mengelberg, Nikisch, Arnold Schoenberg, Weingartner, and Rimsky-Korsakov.

In this remarkable series he presented first local performances of works by Albéniz, Debussy, de Falla, Delius, Elgar, Enesco, Franck, Grieg, Mahler, Prokofiev, Ravel, Schoenberg, and Richard Strauss. His world premieres included works by Arensky, Balakirev, Blumenfeld, Glazunov, Liadov, Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Taneyev, and Tcherepnin, among others.

Siloti had a remarkable gift for the discovery of new talent. Diaghilev first heard (and met) Stravinsky at a Siloti Concert, and the musical world was changed forever. With similar foresight, Siloti conducted Delius in St. Petersburg before Beecham did in England.

Siloti’s work as arranger, transcriber, and editor seemed to have been inspired by his years with Liszt. He studied Liszt’s own transcriptions of Berlioz, Mozart, Rossini and Weber overtures, of the symphonies of Beethoven, and of the organ fugues of J.S. Bach.

Each of Siloti’s transcriptions is wholly pianistic. With astounding ingenuity Siloti re-voices chords, redistributes pedal figures, re-casts melodic lines, provides exact fingerings which pianists ignore at their peril, offers unusual double-fingerings and "third-hand" mid-keyboard thumb lines so as to re-imagine counter melodies, and in all of this honors the grand nineteenth-century tradition of broad gesture and heightened effect.

Uncommonly for his era, Siloti was also capable of simply enchanting work in small forms and no better example of this rare gift may be found than in his Bach transcriptions which are models of their kind in rendering the composer's intentions.

This book is printed on quality acid-free, opaque paper with lasting covers. The book’s pages are Smyth sewn bound for a lifetime permanency and will open up flat for easy use.

Introductory Notes by Dr. Charles Barber

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Carl Fischer, LLC (May 1, 2003)
• ISBN-10: 0825847303
• ISBN-13: 978-0825847301
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #232,275 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ă"timo livro, May 2, 2004

By	Eduardo Just (Pernambuco, Brasil) - See all my reviews

Realmente adorei o livro. Tem todas as melhores versőes de Siloti, que sempre ouvi em CDs e nunca pude estudar. O papel é da melhor qualidade, as impressőes e distribuiçăo das partituras săo muito boas também.
Gosto das versőes de Siloti, acho simples de executar, rápidas de aprender, sem que se perca a qualidade musical da obra original.
A parte inicial apresenta ainda interessantes dados biográficos e belas fotos.

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for serious pianists and libraries, July 2, 2009

By	Jim Fellows (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

The Alexander Siloti Collection was published by Carl Fischer in 2003 in conjunction with Charles Barber's 2002 biography of Siloti, titled "Lost in the Stars" (out of print at this time, but see my review anyway.) Fortunately, the Fischer edition is still in print. I would insist that this volume is crucial to any serious pianist's library.

Some may ask, why pay for editions by some unknown pianist of works that are available in the composer's original editions? Among the people who could have set such a person straight are Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninov. They all relied on Siloti (1863-1945) for help with their compositions, and took his advice. Tchaikovsky only balked once, and that was when the young Siloti completely revised and re-orchestrated his piano concerto, making many cuts. Tchaikovsky insisted that Siloti's edition could exist alongside his own version, but only as an alternative. They toured the piece together in both versions, exchanging roles at the podium and at the piano on different nights. The Siloti version prevailed, and that is what we hear today. Liszt put it more simply, "Siloti is always correct," and then gave Siloti carte blanche permission to edit, revise, and even delete items in his publishing catalog.

Today, those still unsure about the value of such editions might take a moment to read the praise for Siloti that decorates the cover of Barber's biography from (among many others) Vladimir Askenazy, Evgeny Kissin, Valery Gergiev, and Marilyn Horne. Apparently, the stars still know Siloti, even if he is almost unknown among the musical public.

Well then, why pay for editions by a legendary pianist? Here are just two examples from among forty. As Liszt approached the end of his life he sat down with Siloti to make a painstakingly accurate "transcription" of his own performance of the famous Concert Etude in Db (known today as Un Sospiro). Their purpose was to demonstrate to future generations the difference between Liszt's own performances and his published scores. They saw that those performances were soon to become only a quickly fading memory, and were concerned at how future generations of pianists would deal with only the published scores as guidance. They also intended to set the record straight about some notes that still puzzle attentive pianists today. This is one of seven examples of Liszt/Siloti collaborations that are included in the Fischer collection. Certainly, if nothing else, any one of these would count as the least expensive piano lesson you will have taken from a pianist of Liszt or Siloti's stature.

Then there is the case of the Bach "Prelude in B minor", an obscure and unremarkable prelude from the W.F. Bach notebook (BWV 855a ) which Siloti extracted, completely reworked (including the key), and performed. Finally, his score is available to the rest of us. It is perhaps the only hint of what Siloti might have been as a composer, had he not spent his life promoting the works of unknown young artists such as Rachmaninov (his young cousin and student), Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Scriabin. This obscure Bach/Siloti prelude became the signature (and crowd silencing) encore of Russian pianist Emil Gilels. It is through this piece that many of us still find our way to Siloti today. You may watch Gilels perform it at his legendary Moscow Conservatory concert by simply searching for "Gilels plays the Prelude in B minor" on You Tube. (Unfortunately, Gilel's was too crafty to reveal his non-arpeggiated left hand fingerings to the camera. The film shifts to the 3rd cameraman the moment after the passage in question is complete. Apparently Gilels was more effective than the KGB in preserving Soviet-era state secrets into the 21st century.)

These are just two examples from the forty scores Siloti left to us in this priceless volume. Besides the many piano works from composers that Siloti either studied with, taught, orchestrated for, or mentored, are several pieces that he transcribed for piano solo by other composers. As usual, Siloti's choices and expertise are perfect. Two examples are Le Cygne (The Swan) by Saint-Saens and Bach's Siciliano from the flute and keyboard sonata in Eb (BWV 1031.) This last score was hastily jotted down for his son while they were fleeing Soviet Russia in 1920 and has never before been published.

The Fischer collection also has extensive excerpts from "Lost in the Stars" and 6 photographs from that out-of-print biography.