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I have to declare an interest in that this is my disc! Nevertheless I hope, as it contains a fair number of romantic obscurities, that it might be of interest to a few here.
https://divineartrecords.com/recording/operatic-pianist-volume-two/

Track listing:

1. Bellini/Alfred Jaell Reminiscences de Norma: An almost totally unknown paraphrase from a Liszt disciple. It has similarities to the epic Liszt paraphrase, but is a little shorter and incorporates Casta diva, which Liszt omitted.

2. Bellini (arranged by me) Col sorriso d'innocenza: Aria from Il Pirata: somewhat of a precursor of Casta diva, and I have arranged it in a manner similar to Thalberg's arrangement of Casta diva.

3. Donizetti/Leschetizky Andante finale de Lucia di Lammermoor: Leschetizky's ingenious reworking of the sextet for left hand only. Some resemblances to the Liszt paraphrase here.

4. Rossini/Thalberg Fantasie sur Moise in Egitto: one of the great behemoths of the operatic paraphrase tradition. Thalberg played this at his 1837 duel with Liszt, and the finale demonstrates Thalberg's legendary "three-hand effect" in some style.

5. Wagner/Liszt Lohengrin's Admonition: a shimmering but declamatory arrangement contrasts with the previous track.

6. Verdi/me Concert Fantasy on Miserere from Il Trovatore: a paraphrase in the Liszt/Thalberg tradition with lots of octaves, arpeggios and double notes!

7. Meyerbeer/Kullak Cavatine de Robert le Diable: a very rare arrangement of this famous aria. The only other arrangement I know of is also a rarity, the Liszt setting recorded by Leslie Howard.

8. Massenet/Saint-Saens La mort de Thais: high melodrama from the denouement of the opera, featuring a reworking of what we normally hear as the Meditation.

9. Wagner/Liszt Fantasy on themes from Rienzi: ending with a flamboyant paraphrase which features the famous prayer.

I didn't find much reference to Alfred Jaell online, or even on here: most of the comments tend to be in the context of his more famous wife. I agree - in general - with what was said on here about his transcriptions, but the Norma (op.20) isn't, imo, of the saloniste variety (whereas the only other commercial recording I can find of his music, on Katsaris' Album D'un Voyageur, assuredly is). It seems to me a much bigger-boned, quasi-Lisztian affair.

It, along with the Kullak and the Saint-Saens, don't seem to have had any previous commercial recordings.

I'm attaching a couple of Soundcloud links for anyone who is interested (technically speaking, I think these predate final mastering and the very last stages of noise reduction).

https://soundcloud.com/andrew-wright-35/massenet-saint-saens-la-mort-de-thais-extract
https://soundcloud.com/andrew-wright-35/alfred-jaell-casta-diva

I hope this might be of interest to some of you!

Also, if anyone has any interesting and obscure 19th century paraphrases they might like to bring to attention, I would be interested in hearing of them. For the purposes of this, I'm viewing Liszt, Thalberg, Tausig and Pabst as "conquered territory", as I think pretty much everything out there has already been recorded. I prefer works which emanate from bel canto to those which emanate from Wagner; I just think the textures work better when they are simpler. To give you some idea re the others, I'm not convinced by a lot of the more obscure stuff: the Dohler I have seen didn't strike me as terribly memorable; Sydney Smith likewise (a bit generic); Emile Prudent there are actually some quite nice recordings by Junko Nakamura; Fumagalli I've not looked through fully; Raff for some reason I've never looked at his paraphrases; Herz and Pixis are slightly too classical-based for my tastes (I get the peculiar feeling sometimes with Pixis that he is half-way between emulating and parodying Beethoven!)

Anyway I would be interested in comments and suggestions!

This would appear to indicate limited print runs. If you are reproducing less than 500 (and in many cases, less than 1000) the replication route, resulting in conventional commercial CDs, won't be available to you; it will have to be duplication, and that is done with CD-Rs.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but in general I'm (personally) somewhat opposed to completist projects - I think they all too often end up with someone recording less-distinguished pieces which they don't really believe in, purely for the sake of it, and the net result shows.

It would have been nice to hear some never before recorded works, but one must be grateful for a new recording.

Yes, agreed, or for someone to re-record the op.70 set as Power's recording is not up to scratch, imo.

This may be of interest to a few. As an enthusiast of this repertoire area, imo it has one of the very best Thalberg paraphrases on it in the shape of the Sonnambula fantasy.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Piano%2BClassics/PCL0092

A promising-looking addition, Mark Viner being a noted exponent of Alkan, and I'm glad to see more recording time given to these 19th century curiosities. On my "to buy" list. It will be interesting to hear if he can match up to Earl Wild in Don Pasquale!

I only know the opera from Tausig's transcription, but some of you may be interested in the following announcement, found on MusicWeb.

"Moniuszko's Halka

2014 POSK 50th Anniversary
October 4th 7.30pm (Saturday) and October 5th at 5pm (Sunday).

The Polish Social and Cultural Association POSK presents Halka, an opera in Four Acts, Music by Stanislaw Moniuszko. Libretto by Wlodzimierz Wolski.

A cast of internationally recognised soloists perform Moniuszko's masterpiece- Poland's first national opera "Halka" to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Polish Social and Cultural Association POSK in London.

Cast
Halka- Monika Swiostek, Jontek- Rafal Bartminski, Janusz- Marcin Janusz, Stolnik- Piotr Lempa/Marcin Gesla, Zosia- Violetta Gawara, Dziemba- Marcin Gesla/Piotr Lempa, Coro dell Angelo- Chorus, The Orchestra of POSK Polish Opera in London

Director- Richard Fawkes
Conductor- Stephen Ellery

Halka received its first performance in Vilnius in 1848.  9 years later for the Warsaw National Opera premiere of 1857 the  2 act opera was enlarged to 4 acts to include national dances Polonaise, Mazur and Tance Goralskie as well as specially composed arias reminiscent of Polish folk songs.

Poland did not exist as an independent country and therefore its very creation was a revolutionary act, as under Tsarist Russian rule any artistic activity was subject to censorship. The composer was determined to create this work against all odds and the music and texts are enthused with Polish national musical rhythms and melodies. Because of its very nature it is a miracle that it reached the stage of performance as the artists involved risked their livelihoods by doing so.

Not only is 2014 the 50th Anniversary of POSK but also the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Casino and the 25th Anniversary of free elections in Poland, so the staging of this opera provides a fitting tribute to the fighting spirit of Poland.

Ticket prices £20, 25, 30
admin@posk.org "

Many thanks Ludmil - and congratulations. What an enjoyable concerto.

Duly noted - thanks. Wasn't planning on the "March to the Scaffold" at point!

Thanks, Thal, for having posted this first time round. I hope I can be forgiven for this thread bump, but seeing as there is some material on the CD which is clearly outwith the mainstream repertoire, including a first commercial recording, perhaps some of you might be interested to know that the CD has just been re-released as "The Operatic Pianist" on the Divine Art label -http://www.divine-art.co.uk/CD/25113info.htm

I'm hoping to do a follow-up album, which will contain other rare/unrecorded material, some time next year.

Indeed, re nationality I had assumed he was Hungarian from his Budapest connections, but I am none the wiser after reading the Wikipedia pages; considerably more confused perhaps. Of course birthplace isn't always an indicator - ironically Liszt's birthplace is now in Austria and I believe he didn't speak Hungarian!

The flautist and composer Franz Doppler, who made orchestral versions of several of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, and also wrote a number of operas. Borderline, but perhaps (seeing as he was so influential on Liszt) it is worth mentioning the gypsy violinist Janos Bihari.

Think you mean Op. 69 - for the Piano Trio in A major? A too twitchy finger on the keyboard here. Yes, the work is certainly "not bad at all", but you sound grudging in your admiration for it. Heavens, if I told my wife that the meal she put on the table last night was 'not bad at all' I'd have been promptly dispatched to the doghouse (and without the CD player for company).

Umm, I do indeed! A bit grudging, perhaps - in the sense I find it hard to argue it's a masterpiece, but it clearly has merit. The Alkan I quoted, for example, is surely better - certainly more "interesting".

Thalberg's op.79 piano trio is not bad at all, and he mostly keeps his virtuoso tendencies in check. The Marco Polo Alkan chamber music disc is warmly recommended, and the middle movement of the Grand Duo Concertant is quite remarkable. Only Alkan could have written it.

I would argue that Alkan is one of those rare composers who has managed to cross from unsung to, at least, the fringes of the mainstream - thanks largely to the work of Lewenthal, Smith and Hamelin. Unfortunately, the almost prohibitive demands of some of his large-scale works make programming of his music an unlikely proposition for most pianists.

Towards the top of the unsung pile, but not imo in the mainstream, lie two composers in whom I have a particular interest. Firstly, and he is a composer who I firmly believe deserves a place at the higher table, is Liapunov. Looking at his music, one finds a composer who evidently had complete command of the instrument as a pianist; his Transcendental Etudes include what must be considered his personal takes on Islamey and Feux Follets, as well as some beautiful character pieces written at a level miles above typical 19th century salon fare (Nuit d'ete and Harpes eoliennes). The piano and orchestra works are worth hearing too; the second concerto is probably the best, and the Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes a glorious virtuoso romp.

Thalberg is almost forgotten, except by pianists, but people are doing themselves a disservice by ignoring him. It is well worthwhile to take a look at his better operatic fantasies ( for me, La Sonnambula and La Traviata spring to mind): though they were competitors on the concert platform, don't view him as an inferior version of Liszt. That's missing the point; whilst he lacked some of Liszt's compositional and structural ingenuity, his viewpoint is different, containing a certain classical purity. And absolutely take a look at his op. 70, L'art du chant: I think this is one of the most important works in the arrangement field, a multitude of vocal items set, in a non-virtuoso context, with skill and great care.

Unless I'm severely misunderstanding the original statement, it seems an odd thing to say. (As a point of pedantry, I assume this refers to paraphrases rather than transcriptions). Mr Soerjadi plays a lot of paraphrases, including his own ones (perhaps his are kitsch  ) My personal view would be that it depends on how the material is dressed up: if you want to restate the themes with really cheesy harmonies, then I'm sure you can kitschify the music. There's a lot of craft in the fantasies of Liszt, Thalberg and others, and I would be hesitant about dismissing them artistically - why can't beautiful music still be art when it is re-expressed in a new medium by a master pianist/composer?