Tim Rumsey Transcriptions album for solo piano is released by Luminate Records on 14 November 2025, in partnership with Ulysses Arts.
Click above to pre-order from iTunes with digital booklet
1. WILLIAM WALTON, Orb & Sceptre (Coronation March 1953), arranged by Timothy Rumsey
2. GABRIEL FAURÉ, Après un Rêve, arranged by Percy Grainger
3. GABRIEL FAURÉ, Nell, arranged by Percy Grainger
4. CHARLES TRENET / WALTER EIGER, En avril à Paris, arranged by Alexis Weissenberg
5. JOHN DOWLAND, Now, O now, I needs must part, arranged by Percy Grainger
6. PERCY GRAINGER, Blithe Bells, based on J.S. Bach's ʻSheep May Safely Grazeʼ
7. EARL WILD / GEORGE GERSHWIN: Etude No. 1, based on Gershwinʼs ʻLizaʼ
8. TIM RUMSEY: Variations on Gershwinʼs ʻShall We Dance?ʼ
9. HENRY PURCELL, Didoʼs Lament (ʻWhen I am laid in earthʼ) from Dido and Aeneas, arranged by Tim Rumsey
10. PAUL DUKAS, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (ʻLʼApprenti Sorcier, Scherzo dʼaprès une ballade de Goetheʼ), arranged by Tim Rumsey
2. GABRIEL FAURÉ, Après un Rêve, arranged by Percy Grainger
3. GABRIEL FAURÉ, Nell, arranged by Percy Grainger
4. CHARLES TRENET / WALTER EIGER, En avril à Paris, arranged by Alexis Weissenberg
5. JOHN DOWLAND, Now, O now, I needs must part, arranged by Percy Grainger
6. PERCY GRAINGER, Blithe Bells, based on J.S. Bach's ʻSheep May Safely Grazeʼ
7. EARL WILD / GEORGE GERSHWIN: Etude No. 1, based on Gershwinʼs ʻLizaʼ
8. TIM RUMSEY: Variations on Gershwinʼs ʻShall We Dance?ʼ
9. HENRY PURCELL, Didoʼs Lament (ʻWhen I am laid in earthʼ) from Dido and Aeneas, arranged by Tim Rumsey
10. PAUL DUKAS, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (ʻLʼApprenti Sorcier, Scherzo dʼaprès une ballade de Goetheʼ), arranged by Tim Rumsey
Tim Rumsey writes: 'Piano transcriptions have a rich history and often with strong connections to famous composers and pianists, something which I’ve tried to showcase in this recording, featuring a mix of existing transcriptions along with my own efforts.
An interest in jazz fuelled my initial curiosity for these transcriptions. Ten years ago, I came across Gershwin’s Piano Rolls and transcribed the music from the recordings to put together my own solo arrangements, often playing them as encores in concerts. I only discovered later that someone had already done the hard work of transcribing them note for note in a published score of piano duets! Gershwin’s music lends itself so well to piano arrangement, as is evident from the number of composers who have attempted it over the years, and this is when I discovered Earl Wild. A phenomenal pianist in his own right, his Études are known to most pianists: Liza is full of effortless virtuosity with the melody being passed all over the place, almost as an accompaniment to the filigree material which surrounds it. Around the same time, I also found Alexis Weissenberg’s masterful arrangement of Charles Trenet’s En avril, à Paris. Full of whimsical improvisations and extremely sophisticated harmonic shifts not unlike the Wild, it is part of a set of six Trenet songs Weissenberg assembled in the 1950s, broadcast on the radio and virtually forgotten until Marc-André Hamelin brought them to light recently.
Now settled on a voyage of transcription discovery, I came across the fantastic body of work which belongs to the Australian composer, Percy Grainger. Being such a unique musical voice, his arrangements of Après un rêve and Nell owe much of their makeup to Fauré’s originals, being examples of the way in which more faithful transcriptions can take shape. Now, O Now, I needs must part pushes the boundaries much further than John Dowland’s original Jacobean song: some of Grainger’s harmony wouldn’t sound out of place on a Bill Evans recording. The ‘free ramble’ of Blithe Bells, as Grainger says, is ‘coloured by the thought that Bach…may have aimed at giving a hint of the sound of sheep bells’ with the thirds and tenths which characterise the music from the very opening.
It's only when you begin to embark on a piano transcription, you really start to realise how masterful the original work is. When transcribers change so much of the original music – in terms of its harmony, rhythm, melody, and structure – you would be forgiven for thinking that the essence of the original completely disappears. However, it still somehow remains in its strongest and often purest form. One gets to hear it again in a totally different light, with the perspective of the transcriber honouring the true spirit of the original.'
An interest in jazz fuelled my initial curiosity for these transcriptions. Ten years ago, I came across Gershwin’s Piano Rolls and transcribed the music from the recordings to put together my own solo arrangements, often playing them as encores in concerts. I only discovered later that someone had already done the hard work of transcribing them note for note in a published score of piano duets! Gershwin’s music lends itself so well to piano arrangement, as is evident from the number of composers who have attempted it over the years, and this is when I discovered Earl Wild. A phenomenal pianist in his own right, his Études are known to most pianists: Liza is full of effortless virtuosity with the melody being passed all over the place, almost as an accompaniment to the filigree material which surrounds it. Around the same time, I also found Alexis Weissenberg’s masterful arrangement of Charles Trenet’s En avril, à Paris. Full of whimsical improvisations and extremely sophisticated harmonic shifts not unlike the Wild, it is part of a set of six Trenet songs Weissenberg assembled in the 1950s, broadcast on the radio and virtually forgotten until Marc-André Hamelin brought them to light recently.
Now settled on a voyage of transcription discovery, I came across the fantastic body of work which belongs to the Australian composer, Percy Grainger. Being such a unique musical voice, his arrangements of Après un rêve and Nell owe much of their makeup to Fauré’s originals, being examples of the way in which more faithful transcriptions can take shape. Now, O Now, I needs must part pushes the boundaries much further than John Dowland’s original Jacobean song: some of Grainger’s harmony wouldn’t sound out of place on a Bill Evans recording. The ‘free ramble’ of Blithe Bells, as Grainger says, is ‘coloured by the thought that Bach…may have aimed at giving a hint of the sound of sheep bells’ with the thirds and tenths which characterise the music from the very opening.
It's only when you begin to embark on a piano transcription, you really start to realise how masterful the original work is. When transcribers change so much of the original music – in terms of its harmony, rhythm, melody, and structure – you would be forgiven for thinking that the essence of the original completely disappears. However, it still somehow remains in its strongest and often purest form. One gets to hear it again in a totally different light, with the perspective of the transcriber honouring the true spirit of the original.'
`More pre-order, download and streaming links will be publshed here.
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Electronic press kit for reviewers and radio producers available from Ulysses Arts.