Completions, reconstructions,' reimaginings' and the like

[Pulcinella]

I really like Anna’s Sea Interludes - I think they adapt to Organ very well.

I really hate the term reimagining, along with the way curating is used these days it seems to me the English language is being sadly abused.

Fair comments, both!
I just wish she'd stick to Bach, Buxtehude,...., rather than 'reimagining' Britten, however good and evocative the adaptation is. Britten (and that work in particular) gets enough exposure; when did anyone last hear a piece by Tournemire?

PS: Link added to a recording of a piece from his L'orgue mystique cycle:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8056049--organ-music-from-the-two-cathedrals-in-liverpool

[Dave2002]

when did anyone last hear a piece by Tournemire?

Ouch - now you've got me. Probably around 50+ years ago I think Malcolm Willlamson may have played one on the RFH organ one Sunday afternoon.

Quite memorable for a few reasons - though I can't swear that Tournemire was on the menu.

[LHC]

Another completion that has become established (sort of) is Franco Alfano's completion of Puccini's Turandot. I say 'sort of' because Alfano's first attempt was rejected by the publishers, Ricordi, who had commissioned the completion, and Alfano was required to produce a second shorter version that followed Puccini's sketches more closely.

Toscanini, who conducted the premier, cut a further three minutes from Alfano's second attempt and it is this shortened version which is generally performed now.

There have been a few attempts to perform Alfano's first and longer completion, most notably, Pappano's recent complete CD recording, but it the Toscanini version which still holds sway in most opera houses.

[LMcD]

I really like Anna’s Sea Interludes - I think they adapt to Organ very well.

I really hate the term reimagining, along with the way curating is used these days it seems to me the English language is being sadly abused.

Didn't they tell you that we're all 'transitioning' to a new world?

[smittims]

There is a long tradition of 'organ'-ising orchestral works, but I take the point about the many fine neglected original organ works. For insace, This week's 'Choral Evensong ' having come from York Minster, it reminded me that many years a ago I heard Edward Bairstow's organ sonata on Radio 3. . And it can be argued that now we have so many recordings and so many ways to hear them there's no excuse for arrangements.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I clearly have a very different view from many who are clearly suspicious of completions/elaborations. Handel, arr. Mozart/Goossens, etc: Messiah - a magnificent rewriting. It doesn't replace the original, but it's superb in its own way. Mozart: Requiem. Sussmayer did a reasonable job, but others have been better. Schubert 8 with completed 3rd movement and Rosamunde Entr'acte as a finale - this works, and the fact that Schubert began the scherzo is indicative that he wanted to go beyond the two completed movements. It's been said elsewhere that had Beethoven abandoned his 7th symphony after the 2nd movement, many would say it was complete already. Respighi: The Birds. Not authentic, but tasteful. Bruckner 9: I can't comment, because I've yet to hear any of the completions, but I'm not a Bruckner fan. Elgar 3: I think this is magnificent, and was there at the premiere. And the often repeated claim, that the composer would have written a better symphony had he lived a little longer, is doubtful. The sketches that survived were mostly old ones, some of which had been worked into other compositions, notably the King Arthur music. The composer's late music was but a shadow of the works of two decades earlier. Anthony Payne's elaboration is probably a finer work than what Elgar would have produced in the 1930s. AP's use of the sketches to produce such an intensely beautiful slow movement was masterful indeed.

[smittims]

That's an interesting view which I hadn't heard before. I see what you mean about re-using old sketches, but I think the authentic fragements of the Third do show that it wouldn't have been another 'Severn Suite' . Friends who saw the sketches of the second symphony said they couldn't imagine how he could make a complete symphony out of them. But it was his way to ponder manhy sketches over a long time and then suddently one day begin to write out the finished work in a few weeks . I don't think that would have happened with The Spanish Lady , and I think in his heart of hearts , he knew it, but the Third Symphony I'm sure would have been finished convincingly in a further six months.

[Serial_Apologist]

The Elgar family authorized Anthony Payne to produce a 'Third Symphony' in the hope of fending off something of which they might not approve. To his credit, I don't think Payne ever described it as such and discouraged others from doing so.

A bit of a Payne in the asking, then!

[cloughie]

Didn't they tell you that we're all 'transitioning' to a new world?

Is it an age thing?

[Serial_Apologist]

Is it an age thing?

No that's called death.

[LMcD]

No that's called death.

So ... the rumours are true! My hopes have been 'decimated' (in the currently popular meaning of the word)..

[Serial_Apologist]

So ... the rumours are true! My hopes have been 'decimated' (in the currently popular meaning of the word)..

[Retune]

I was going to ask if anyone remembers Barry Cooper's 'Beethoven's 10th', but it seems someone must, because they've now used AI to nail two additional movements on the end (which sound as unlike Beethoven as you might expect, despite the obvious borrowings).