Your Six Favourite Orchestrations

[Dave2002]

would Holst's orchestration of The Planets Suite count - didn't it start life as a piano duet ?

I believe you are right about the original version - see http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/07454/details.html

I have heard it played on a double piano - not two pianos, but a rather large instrument with two keyboards and presumably two sets of strings. There was a duo who performed this and other pieces on the instrument which they moved about with them - I can't instantly recall who they were - but the instrument was ***** heavy!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Talking of Liszt, his transcription of Schubert's Erlking actually makes the original seem eas
Berlioz orchstrated the same song, but in doing so it lost much of its menace.

[Nick Armstrong]

... I very much like the other kind of transcription - from orchestral or other to piano.

Hmmm I have an allergy to octave tremolos on the piano standing in for sustained strings...

[vinteuil]

... sustained strings...

... yes, we always knew our Caliban to be a fan of the Mantovani sound.

[kea]

Liszt transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies (Yuri Martynov )

Ooh I forgot about these. Not sure I could pick a favourite though the 9th is something special in the right hands.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

... yes, we always knew our Caliban to be a fan of the Mantovani sound.

Actually he's become a convert to the fortepiano.

[Nick Armstrong]

... yes, we always knew our Caliban to be a fan of the Mantovani sound.

[pastoralguy]

How about Bo Holten's arrangements of Grieg songs for orchestra and voice?

[Lento]

Rach Vocalise, apparently both with and without vocal soloist. (Other arrangements are available, of course, aside from the orchestral: one expects there are few instruments for which it hasn't been arranged).

[Nick Armstrong]

Ravel: Ravel "Ma Mère L'oye"

Webern: J.S. Bach Ricercar à 6 from 'The Musical Offering' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xobJeC4SnRA

Respighi: J.S. Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582

Elgar: J.S. Bach Fantasia & Fugue in C minor, BWV 537

Schönberg: J.S. Bach "St Anne" Prelude & Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552

Schönberg: Brahms Piano Quartet

I would have to edit my list as in bold above, having just heard the piece on Concertgebouw Radio in a 2006 concert performance withe George Benjamin conducting the RCO...

That final movement... How could I have forgotten it? My single favourite piece of orchestrated piano music, I think...

[Flosshilde]

We'd never hear the end of Turandot.

Not quite the same thing as the subject of the thread, though?

My 'favourite' six? Any six of Strauss' songs.

[Zucchini]

Sitkovetsky Goldberg Variations. Really good.

[Petrushka]

Ravel: Ravel "Tombeau de Couperin"

Webern: J.S. Bach Ricercar à 6 from 'The Musical Offering' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xobJeC4SnRA

Respighi: J.S. Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582

Elgar: J.S. Bach Fantasia & Fugue in C minor, BWV 537

Schönberg: J.S. Bach "St Anne" Prelude & Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552

Schönberg: Brahms Piano Quartet

This list would do for my own with the addition of some a little off the beaten track:

Stravinsky's orchestration of The Star Spangled Banner
Debussy: 6 Epigraph Antiques (orch Rudolf Escher)
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition orchestrated by Leopold Stokowski
Stravinsky's Greetings Prelude a witty orchestration of Happy Birthday To You
Vincent Youman's Tea for Two as orchestrated by Shostakovich

[EdgeleyRob]

Brahms,Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel (orch Rubbra).

[Roehre]

This list would do for my own with the addition of some a little off the beaten track:

Stravinsky's orchestration of The Star Spangled Banner
Debussy: 6 Epigraph Antiques (orch Rudolf Escher)
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition orchestrated by Leopold Stokowski
Stravinsky's Greetings Prelude a witty orchestration of Happy Birthday To You
Vincent Youman's Tea for Two as orchestrated by Shostakovich

Btw: Stravinsky was arrested for his Star Spangled Banner arrangement, for damaging state property or something like that