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IMHO these generally lack the impact of the piano sound and tend to be syrupy and sweet.
I have just been listening to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies as transcribed for Orchestra (and List himself had a hand in that). Not very interesting compared to the same items on the piano.
A similar situation applies to the Chopin works transcribed by Gluzunov and used for "Les Sylphides" although the sweetness there is excusable for the music as a ballet backdrop. But by itself it tends to be rather boring.
But as against the above we have the very dramatic "Pictures at an Exhibition" which does come across convincingly in orchestral form by Ravel. That said the original work on the piano is also dramatically impressive.
And the reverse, e.g. piano transcriptions from other works as written by Liszt, can be highly effective.
Bottom line is the piano is capable of such a wide range of expression it stands above most other instruments, many of which rely upon the piano for accompaniment!
Enjoying 12,000 mostly classical CDs via Sennheiser HD800 headphones & M2TECH Vaughan DAC -> HeadRoom BlockHead headphone amplifier fed from a Meridian (Sooloos) server system.
The main 7.1 MC electrostatic speaker system is for A/V at night.
Follow Ups:
I have the second CD of Colin Matthews' orchestrations of the Debussy Preludes, which I find very interesting and enjoyable, if (to me) a little inconsistent.
Some of the orchestrations make me think yes - that was the sound Debussy must have had in his head, but some of the others don't feel quite "Debussyan" any more.
Alex
Including those of his own piano works.
...so it is not surprising that you find orchestral transcriptions lacking in "percussiveness". Ravel's orchestration of Pictures succeeds largely because he used the percussion section to great effect.
I have not been a great fan of orchestrations of piano music either. There have been quite a few different orchestrations of Mussourgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. I don't dislike those.
Stokowski orchestrated a number of piano works. His orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition is interesting, but I think his orchestrations of some of Debussy's piano music more successful. He also orchestrated some Mozart, I think, but I've never heard recordings.
Mahler's Kindertotenleider also was originally composed for piano and voice, which he later orchestrated. I think it turned out pretty well. Myaskovsky also created his orchestral work Links from earlier piano pieces. Novak did a good job orchestrating his symphonic poem, Pan. And I think many or Ravel's orchestral works actually originated as piano pieces. But these are compositions orchestrated by the original composer.
On the other hand, I find Respighi's orchestrations of some of Rachmaninoff's Etudes-Tableaux deeply soporific, whereas the original piano works are truly engaging.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
Those are a tour de force in my book!
The all-time prize for worst orchestration (in the sense of painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa - and I know this isn't just a piano piece, but. . . ) has to go to Schoenberg's monstrosity orchestration of the Brahms G-minor Piano Quartet!
I have to disagree about the Schoenberg transcription of the Brahms Piano Quartet. I love the last movement, xylophone and all. It's just a barrel of fun as far as I'm concerned. The Mona Lisa with a mustache is a joke, and so is this...
Is it the Simon Rattle recording you're speaking of ? I enjoyed this
alsoI think it depends on how much "reverence" you assign to particular pieces
of a Composer's music whether changing its form will be "enjoyable" to
you (He,he,he... I would imagine musicians have a harder time "accepting"
Orchestrations, particularly those who are Chamber Music players !)(I'll have to give this a play today;Thanks for mentioning it !)
Edits: 02/13/15
I haven't heard the Rattle. My favorites are Craft/Chicago and Dohnanyi/Cleveland (live performance released by the orchestra in a 10-CD set).
The Dohnanyi / Cleveland live 10 CD set sounds like something I'd like
to have to go along with my Anthology of the RCO live, Vol. 5 & 6, 14 CD
box sets.
Having all these discs on Hard Drive has been a real treat!! I can't recall
any listening session I've had for a while when I haven't included listening to something from these sets. Very nice live recordings with many highly acclaimed conductor's of the 20yr time span covered between both sets.
I purchased both of these sets at Tower Records,Center City , Philadelphia
several years ago !
I seem to remember reading someplace that Rachmaninoff actually gave Respighi some ideas regarding the Etudes-Tableaux pieces. So he wasn't opposed to the orchestration -- although he was not interested in doing that himself. I guess I just imprinted on the piano version.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
Edits: 02/11/15 02/11/15
Well. . . I'm certainly not going to argue with that!
I agree with you about the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies - the orchestral versions just sound so bland (to me anyway). I don't even particularly care for the Ravel orchestration of Pictures. The new Breiner orchestration (available on a Naxos Blu-ray audio) is SO much more fun!
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