I'd like to attract your attention to the concert collection of Sergei Rachmaninov's piano transcriptions. Those were his own original opuses or just other composers' music to have been arranged by the great Russian master directly for the concert stage.
Actually all the transcriptions (besides several early ones in four hands) appeared after Rachmaninov's departure from Russia, when, as he desperately confessed ''the eager for composing was lost''. These brilliant miniatures very often became the true creams of crops at his performances. Rachmaninov's immense piano skill of different periods is revealed through these transcriptions recorded at studios and just performances.
The composer's stylistic peculiarities are manifested in his transcriptions: saturated powerful timbre elaboration of piano facture, miraculous harmony, abundant improvisation in cadenzas, masterly audacious account. Meanwhile, Rachmaninov captivates one by his most delicate treatment of any other author's original message, e. g. his last creation - the transcription of R I. Tchaikovsky's ''Lullaby'' (op. 16, No. 1), the manuscript of which is indicated August 12, 1941.
The title of ''Polka W. R.'' belongs to Rachmaninov himself. The composer was sure his father Wassily (old spelling of Vasily) Arkadievich to have created this miniature. Of course, Vasily Arkadievich enjoyed playing it to his family, but the real author of this piece (called in fact ''La Rieuse. Polca Badine'' op. 303) was Ferdinand Beyer (1803-1863). The music of Beyer's polka is published in the two- volumes edition of ''Reminiscences about S. V. Rachmaninov'' (Moscow, Muzyka, the fifth supplemented edition).
Andrey Ovsyannikov

Contents:
S. Rachmaninov. Polka W. R
M. Musorgsky. Hopak. From the opera ''Sorochinskaya Fair''
N. Rimsky-Korsakov. Bumble-Bee's Flight. From the opera ''Tale of Tsar Saltan''
F. Schubert. Where? From the songs cycle ''Lovely Milleress ''
P. Tchaikovsky. L