This Glenn Gould transcription is of Wagner’s contrapuntal tour de force, the Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Wagner himself presented this Prelude as a self-standing work some six years before the first production of the complete opera, and it has been a popular part of the orchestral repertory ever since: but such is the richness of its contrapuntal detail—as lightly carried as is the contrapuntal feat of the finale of Mozart’s 'Jupiter' Symphony—that it is an understandably rare treat to hear it performed as here in a piano arrangement, with a little help from what Gould calls 'constructive cheating'!

from notes by Daniel Jaffé © 2014