Bach, Beethoven and Brahms did it. Liszt took it to such virtuosic heights that the entire genre almost collapsed. Ahead of his own album of transcriptions, the pianist and composer looks at the history of reworking existing music<\/p>\n
They have long been the norm in the world of jazz clubs and hotel lounges, but transcriptions in the classical world were for many years a bit of a naughty word \u2013 or at least a guilty pleasure. To arrange someone else\u2019s music in a way they hadn\u2019t originally intended, often with extravagant decoration, is still regarded in some quarters as displaying a lack of seriousness, a lapse of taste \u2013 or even as sacrilege.<\/p>\n
Listen to Mozart\u2019s Don Giovanni in the hands of Liszt<\/a>. The venerated 18th-century opera underwent a metamorphosis, becoming a blisteringly virtuoso potpourri, its melodies serving as mere launch pads for the most exaggerated form of showing off. Our jaws may drop with astonished delight but is it serious or tasteful?<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/c919d2926c2e780dbb32e2d61153dbb8cbe31fb0\/917_0_5600_4480\/master\/5600.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=6581aa36b6b700701f7b795877f47c2b\" "\\"Dazzling,")
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