Once again the Trenkner-Speidel Piano Duo shows that a “reduction” for the piano does not necessarily mean limitations. Mahler’s well known Symphony No.5, from the single trumpet opening to the “Funeral March” at the beginning to the famous Adagietto (the film music in Visconti’s Death in Venice) shows that the piano version requires the most delicate touch.
The meticulous use of the pedal is essential – music as if made to order for the Trenkner-Speidel Duo, which here has very advantageously applied its decades of experience with the transcription of symphonic scores. Gustav Mahler authorised Otto Singer’s piano version – but not before he had intervened to offer his own advice.
The resulting arrangement offers fascinating new perspectives on what is perhaps an exceedingly familiar work, captured in three dimensions on this 2+2+2 recording and presented with painstaking precision on a Super Audio CD. The result is an authentic fin-de-siècle atmosphere.
