Favourite Transcriptions
Sat, Oct 20 2012, 11:42PM
Does anybody have any favourite transcriptions of works that they feel add their understanding of the orginal or just love for their own merits?
Sun, Oct 21 2012, 10:48PM
#2
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
Transcription is an Art in Classical Music. The subject is vast to analyze it here.
One work I truly love it in the transcription form rather than in the original is Mozart's String Quintet in c minor, K.406 (from the Serenade for Winds, K.388). Astonishingly beautiful, more profound and superbly sonorous for the Strings.
I may refer to more on another occasion.
Parla
Fri, Oct 26 2012, 3:43PM
#3
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
Does anybody have any favourite transcriptions of works that they feel add their understanding of the orginal or just love for their own merits?
I don't get on with Bach in his familiar orchestral dressings (scratchy strings, harpsichord, teeth-clenching high trumpets) and am convinced he turned to the organ because that instrument alone could give him the power and colour he heard in his mind. So then, what better to hear the full power of Bach as he intended but in such orchestral transcriptions as those by Respighi, Elgar and Ormandy?
Fri, Oct 26 2012, 11:21PM
#4
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
I have to say I don't have the same reaction to orchestral Bach on period instruments - it is fine with me.
As I asked the question I suppose it is necesary for me to throw some ideas into the ring. I have a real soft spot for the Bach/Siloti Prelude in E minor, which I think is just perfect (particularly in Gilels video).I am also partial to much of Busoni's transcriptions of Bach.
Of course there is much by Liszt to admire - some of the Wagner, while undeniably diluted in a way, is really interesting as the choice of voices often makes me think we are hearing Wagner as Liszt did, which I personally find very interesting.
Sat, Oct 27 2012, 1:47AM
#5
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
Taking transcription in a broad sense, here go a few more for the debate:
1. Ravel on Mussorgsky's Pictures: so good that many take this orchestration as the original piece: there are other versions but Ravel rules;
2. Berlioz on Weber's Invitation to Dance;
3. Rachmaninov's Vocalise (Op. 34): so many arrangements;
4. Barshai on Shostakovitch's String Quartets (Chamber Symphonies);
5. Webern on Bach's Musical Ofering (Ricercare a 6 voci).
Sat, Oct 27 2012, 7:56AM
#6
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
Schoenberg's arrangement of Das Lied von der Erde and.....
.... of Johann Strauss Emperor Waltz!
Chris
Sat, Oct 27 2012, 12:02PM
#7
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
Well, 78rpm, I used to play Stokowski's Philadelphia Weber 78 record over & over again as a child but I was never sure if it was Berlioz's orchestration or his own.
Also Sgambati's Gluck Orfeo piece played by Mark Hambourg on a completely unprocessed Opal 78 transfer is one of the most exquisite pieces of piano playing I have ever heard together with Horowitz's Czerny Ricordanza variations, for me the best recording Horowitz ever made.
Sat, Oct 27 2012, 2:32PM
#8
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
so good that many take this orchestration as the original piece
Oh really? LOL.
Sat, Oct 27 2012, 5:39PM
#9
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
Stricto sensu, orchestrations or (broad) arrangements do not fall in the category of transcription, which is supposed to be a faithful adaptation of the original score. However, in the wider sense of the term anything that is a very close to the original score new notation (of the original score) for the new instrument(s) could be considered as such.
Barhsai's or Mitropoulos' arrangements of the String Quartets by Shostakovich and Beethoven respectively are very close to transcriptions. However, the accommodation of the Double Basses' voice make them more like a sort of arrangement, since there is an intervention (even minor) to the score. On the other hand, Stravinsky's "Rite" transcribed by the composer for four hands piano or Bach's Concerti by Vivaldi, Marcello etc. or Mozart's transcriptions of his own works are more pertinent cases of this Art.
In any case, Hyperion, among the quite a few "bold" projects it has undertaken, has also launched the one dealing with Bach's Transcriptions for Piano, which has reached almost 10 Volumes (some of them are double CDs!). Of course, it contains all kind of adaptations, arrangements and strict transcriptions by various composers throughout the centuries and countries. Very interesting project for the specialist indeed.
Parla
Sat, Oct 27 2012, 6:43PM
#10
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
As far as I am aware "transcription", in the broadest sense, refers to the act of making a written copy: such as a transcription of a speech (i.e. dictation) or, in music, of an improvised solo or of a sung song (such as VW and Bartók used to do in the 1900s). But in its more usual musical meaning, a transcription is the arrangement of a piece for instruments other than those for which it was originally written. In other words, re-orchestration or re-scoring.
I am not a fan of Barshai's transcriptions of the Shostakovich quartets. A case of over-egging the pudding to my ears. In fact it is only when a work requires a lusher sound (such as the Barber Adagio) that I think an expansion of a quartet really works.
Wed, Oct 31 2012, 8:13PM
#11
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
so good that many take this orchestration as the original piece
Oh really? LOL.
Many years ago, Arthur Wills ( I believe) made an organ recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures. There was a magazine review that was not over enthusiastic culminating in "doesn't convey the tonal range of the orchestra!
A couple of months later there was a grovelling apology from the reviewer who had "forgotten" about the piano original.
P
Thu, Nov 1 2012, 3:39PM
#12
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
The music of J S Bach seems to lend itself extremely well to transcription.
The world of music would be a poorer place without the Myra Hess arrangement of Jesu,joy of man's desiring.Dinu Lipatti made an all time great recording just before he died.Lipatti also recorded Wilham Kempff's arrangement of Bach's Siciliana,from sonata no.2 for flute and cembalo.
Walton is not the first name to come to mind in relation to J S Bach.He wrote a ballet based on Bach's music, The Wise Virgins. If you listen to "Sheep May Safely Graze"it is obvious beyond doubt that Walton loved the music of Bach.Spine tingly stuff.
The most interesting transcription for me is,Mozart,Six Preludes and Fugues after J.S and W.F Bach - talk about meeting of minds! Mozart treated the music with great respect.Still it is strange to listen to Bach with a big dollop of added Mozart.There is a superb recording by the Grumiaux Trio on Philips.
Wed, Nov 7 2012, 4:20PM
#13
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
Did anyone try to orchestrate the great D minor chaconne? Busoni's piano version delivers better than the violin original and yet it still seems to cry out for more power.
Wed, Nov 7 2012, 11:03PM
#14
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
BR, the d minor Chaconne was written for violin and it does sound perfect on the instrument. Any other effort offers alternatives through interventions, being all a bit or more out of context and sometimes of proportion.
There are plenty of transcriptions for other instruments: only for Piano some dozen, for Guitar likewise, some for Viola, one by Schumann with Piano accompaniment (that sounds horribly out of context). There is a very fine CD, on ZIGZAG, called Chaconne, containing the original JS Bach composition, Brahms, Busoni and the contemporary Rudolf Lutz's transcriptions for piano.
Finally, yes there are some orchestral transcriptions, or simply orchestrations, of the work in question. There is one available, on Naxos, by the "enfant-terrible" of the art of transcription and orchestration, namely Stokowski. It is an "Historic" recording where Stokowski himself conducts. The other one is a state of the art recording, on Chandos, with an orchestration of the German-Swiss composer Joachim Raff. The conductor is L. Slatkin conducting the BBC P.O. However, both sound "heavy, ponderous, over the top and out of proportion and context). However, for the orchestral colours only, they can be effective enough.
Parla
Thu, Nov 8 2012, 5:47PM
#15
RE: Favourite Transcriptions
The other one is a state of the art recording, on Chandos, with an orchestration of the German-Swiss composer Joachim Raff.
How right you are. I even have that recording! LOL
Liszt's operatic transcriptions; great stuff! Best of all Reminisences de Norma in the absolutely outstanding recording by Raymond Lewenthal coupled with the Hexameron variations by Chopin, Thalberg, Herz et al put together by Liszt (to the best of my knowledge only the Hexameron has appeared on CD). This is for me one of the greatest ever Liszt recordings, also Arrau's Liszt operatic fantasies recording.
Secondly Earl Wild's Vanguard disc including the stunning Donizetti/Thalberg & the Rossini/Herz variations. Marco Polo's Thalberg pieces, not perhaps quite in the same league. Then there's Chopin's Mozart variations for piano & orch.... All greatly enjoyable on their own merits (or dare I say it even preferable to the originals!).
Oh, I nearly forgot Liszt's Schubert song transcriptions. I definitely prefer Jorge Bolet's performances to the originals. Finally Liszt's Schuman Widmung transcription (Bolet & Eileen Joyce) or Sergio Fiorentino playing his own Widmung transcription.