Stradal was born at Teplice, Bohemia (now Western Slovakia), attended the grammar school in Litomerice and then to the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied piano with Anton Door. He also became a composition student of Anton Bruckner[1] and took further piano studies with Theodor Leschetizky and (from late 1884) with Franz Liszt, appearing in the latter's master classes in Weimar, Rome, and Pest, where he played some of Liszt's most difficult works.[2]
Returning to Teplice Stradal was active as a teacher until 1890. For some years he travelled widely as a recitalist on the Continent and in London, particularly admired as a Liszt interpreter. He married Rosa Zweigelt from Krásná Lípa. Then he devoted himself to making piano transcriptions. He arranged music from Bach (most of the organ works and concertos, including the six Brandenburgs),[3]Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner (Symphonies 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8),[4]Buxtehude, Handel (the organ concertos), Liszt (the 13 Symphonic Poems and the Dante Symphony), Mozart, Paganini, Purcell, Reubke, Strauss, Wagner and Vivaldi.[2]
Stradal also composed some original works, including piano pieces (such as the Ungarische Rhapsodie) and songs.[5] He received the Czechoslovak State Award in 1928. The following year he published his Reminiscences of Liszt.[6] Stradal died at Krásná Lípa in 1930, aged 69.[2]
Selected works (solo piano)
Bach - Organ sonata in E minor
Bach - Second Organ Concerto
Bach - Brandenburg Concertos nos.3 and 4
Bach - Piano Concerto in F major
Bach W.F. - Fantasy and Fugue in A minor
Beethoven - String Quartet, Op.131
Brahms - 3 Caprices after the Waltzes, Op.39
Bruckner - String Quintet in F major
Buxtehude - Passacaglia in D minor
Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in A minor
Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in D minor
Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in E minor (no.2)
Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in F major
Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in F♯ minor
Buxtehude - Prelude and fugue in G minor
Buxtehude - Prelude in E minor
Liszt - Dante Symphony
Transcriptions of all 13 of Liszt's Symphonic Poems
Liszt - Faust Symphony
Liszt - Es muss ein Wunderbares sein
Mozart - Symphony no.40
Mozart - Canzone on The Marriage of Figaro
Paganini - Bravoure Study on Caprices
Purcell - Chaconne
Reubke - Sonata on the 94th Psalm
Stradal - Abenddämmerung
Strauss J - Concert paraphrase on the waltz "Dorfschwalben aus Österreich"
Wagner - Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond (from Die Walküre); Der Ritt der Walküren (from Die Walküre); Schluss des letzten Aufzuges (from Die Walküre) Waldweben (from Siegfried); Rheinfahrt aus dem Vorspiel (from Götterdämmerung); Trauermusik aus dem letzten Aufzug (from Götterdämmerung); Wesendonck-Lieder.
^ abc'Obituary: August Stradal. The Musical Times, Vol. 71, No. 1947 (May 1930), p. 463
^Harry Hodge. 'Bach's Brandenburg Concertos', The Musical Times, Vol. 72, No. 1060 (June, 1931), p. 548: "Stradal's arrangement is much better than that of Max Reger's for four hands"
