Favourite music inspired by Shakespeare? (preludes, tone poems, etc.)

[KevinP]

Since we're not in the Diner, I'm pulling the Ellington-is-a-classical-composer card and going with his Such Sweet Thunder LP.

[Lethevich]

Berlioz - Romeo & Juliet, The Tempest, King Lear
Tchaikovsky - Romeo & Juliet
Verdi - Falstaff, Otello

Um, also Mendelssohn and Britten - Midsummer Night's Dream

I like so many that I am in a "can't see the wood for the trees" situation atm

[Renfield]

Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, if I'm staying with one "top" pick.

[not edward]

Probably Ligeti's violin concerto, as it was partly based on music from an abortive operatic version of The Tempest.

[The new erato]

Almost anything by Purcell inspired by The Bard, eg The Fairie Queene (inspired by a Midsummer Nights Dream), but there are lots to choose from.

[Larry Rinkel]

Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, if I'm staying with one "top" pick.

That piece actually was not inspired directly by Shakespeare, but was written in 1804 as an overture to a play by one Heinrich Joseph von Collin.

[longears]

Bernstein's West Side Story
Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet
Berlioz's Romeo & Juliet
Verdi's Otello, Falstaff
Costello's Il Sogno
Sibelius's incidental music for The Tempest
Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder

[Tsaraslondon]

I think my favourites would be Prokoviev's and Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet, Verdi's Otello and Falstaff, and Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream. And I think Lady Macbeth's Sleepwalking Scene from Verdi's Macbeth, the greatest musical distillation of any scene from a Shakespeare play.

[Lilas Pastia]

Gösta Nystroem' sinfonia shakespeariana.

I'm not making that up, I swear:



Here's a review from Music Web. I love this music. It's just magnificent.

[knight66]

There is a list here, there are hundreds to choose from.

http://pages.unibas.ch/shine/metasite4mus.html

I think that Purcell's opera was the first to be inspired by the playright.

I would add to those already on the thread, Vaughn Williams, Serenade to Music, a beautiful silvery setting of Shakespeare.

Mike

[The new erato]

I would add to those listen on the thread, Vaughn Williams, Serenade to music, a beautiful silvery setting of Shakespeare.

Mike

Thanks for reminding me of this. With Purcell and Prokofievs R&J; I think I have my three favorites.

And thanks for the reminder on Nystrøm, I have a couple CDs of his music and find it very strong and uncompromising, but wasn't aware of this.

[Ten thumbs]

Apart from Mendelssohn's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' Overture, Medtner's 'Opheliensgesang' is a little gem. I assume this does relate to the 'Ophelia'.

[Bogey]

Dire Straits Romeo and Juliet from their Making Movies album.

Here is a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbv8d6tBFFI

[Renfield]

That piece actually was not inspired directly by Shakespeare, but was written in 1804 as an overture to a play by one Heinrich Joseph von Collin.

Agreed, but I don't think it's entirely improbable that there was an indirect connection, from Shakespeare to von Collin to Beethoven. After all, the thematic material is very much the same story.

And I still prefer it to any other classical work I at least perceive as inspired by Shakespeare, in any case.

[vandermolen]

David Diamond: Romeo and Juliet (a wonderful score)
Honegger: The Tempest
William Alwyn: The Magic Island (Tempest)
Walton: Henry V and Hamlet film scores (maybe this is cheating)
Bernard Herrmann: Julius Caesar (especially "The Ides of March" sequence (ditto)
Sibelius: The complete Tempest music
Prokofiev: Hamlet/Romeo and Juliet
Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music and "The Poet" from Three Portraits from the England of Elizabeth (documentary film score)
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet/Hamlet

[Nunc Dimittis]

Three of my favorites have already been mentioned:  Prokofiev, Britten and Walton. So let me add

A Winter's Tale by Lars-Erik Larsson.  Especially the final movement, Epilogue.

[Guido]

Finzi's suite - Love's Labours lost

[Larry Rinkel]

Finzi's suite - Love's Labours lost

The opera "Love's Labour's Lost" by Adrian Leverkühn.

[The new erato]

Dire Straits Romeo and Juliet from their Making Movies album.

Definitely one of their best, and one of my favorite DS songs!

[The new erato]

Shostakovich's Hamlet is one of his best film scores!