Which (Popular) Classical Work has the Greatest Dynamic Range?

[George]

I am curious about this. Something by Rachmaninov perhaps? Richard Strauss?

[karlhenning]

Maybe this is disqualified by the parenthetical adjective, but I'd say the Shostakovich Fourth.

[sound67]

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 ?

Someone is about to crash his speakers, I can feel it. 

Thomas

[Lethevich]

Any Kancheli symphony deserves a go

Edit: my eyes totally failed with the "popular" part

[jochanaan]

This mostly depends on the recording.  Some conductor/orchestra combinations draw more dynamics out of the music than others.  Solti and Chicago are noted (some would say "notorious") for drawing out dynamic extremes, as are Karajan/Berlin, while Ormandy/Philadelphia, as fine as they sound, generally don't work in the extreme ends of the "dynamic scale."

But it's also true that certain music, because of orchestration or written dynamic levels, tends to evoke dynamic extremes.  Among those I would nominate Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, Harold in Italy and Requiem; Bruckner's last three symphonies; Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony (that pppppp in the bassoon part!); Debussy's La Mer and Images; Holst's The Planets (much of "Mars" is written at the fff level); Ravel's Boléro (we tend to forget just how extreme its dynamics are since they change so gradually); Varèse's Amériques and Arcana; and just about anything by Mahler, especially his Second and Third Symphonies.

[lukeottevanger]

Depends on your definitions of all sorts of parameters, including 'popular', but I'd say Tchaikovsky 6 fulfils all remits pretty well. Also, its most extreme marking - pppppp - is juxtaposed with an ff which makes for one of the most extreme jumps in dynamics in the 'popular' repertoire.

FWIW there are some composers who use in dynamics in a rather different way, so that large accumulations of p's and f's are not at all uncommon. Albeniz - perhaps unexpectedly - is peculiar in this respect, but leaping above the pack is Ligeti, whose piano etudes (for example) range from pppppppp to ffffffff.

[George]

Thanks guys!

I guess it's HVK's Tchiakovsky 6th, then. Unless you think Bernstein or Mravinsky's might have a greater dynamic range?

I asked because I need a CD to use to burn-in my new interconnects for my CD player and I have been told to use a good orchestral recording with a wide dynamic range to accomplish this. 

[mahler10th]

Thanks guys!

I guess it's HVK's Tchiakovsky 6th, then. Unless you think Bernstein or Mravinsky's might have a greater dynamic range?

I asked because I need a CD to use to burn-in my new interconnects for my CD player and I have been told to use a good orchestral recording with a wide dynamic range to accomplish this. 

Being something of a computer nerd, I like the reason you asked the question George.      I am now away to listen to HVK's Tchiakovsky 6 with the volume up!   

[lukeottevanger]

Ah that's a slightly different question. I'm not the person to ask on this sort of technical recordings question, but am I right in recalling that there was a vogue for recordings with an artificially wide dynamic range a while ago. I'm thinking of some of Rattle's CBSO recordings for some reason - but as I say, this isn't an area that's ever interested me much, and I'm probably wildly wrong.

[lukeottevanger]

And as a further FWIW, remembering that someone suggested Kancheli above - it's true that his predominantly quiet music is infamous for sudden, volcanic eruptions, and the only classical CDs I remember seeing with warning stickers and advice for care of speakers are of Kancheli's music!

[George]

Being something of a computer nerd, I like the reason you asked the question George.      I am now away to listen to HVK's Tchiakovsky 6 with the volume up!   

Beware of the start of the development in the first movement! 

[George]

Ah that's a slightly different question. I'm not the person to ask on this sort of technical recordings question, but am I right in recalling that there was a vogue for recordings with an artificially wide dynamic range a while ago. I'm thinking of some of Rattle's CBSO recordings for some reason - but as I say, this isn't an area that's ever interested me much, and I'm probably wildly wrong.

I have his Mahler 2 with the same forces. Perhaps that will work if you are correct? Unfortunately, the symphony is split between two discs.  Movement 1 on CD 1, the rest on CD 2. 

[lukeottevanger]

I have his Mahler 2 with the same forces. Perhaps that will work if you are correct? Unfortunately, the symphony is split between two discs.  Movement 1 on CD 1, the rest on CD 2. 

Yes, it ought to do the trick - the last movement will suffice!

[jochanaan]

I guess it's HVK's Tchiakovsky 6th, then. Unless you think Bernstein or Mravinsky's might have a greater dynamic range?

Possibly equal, but I doubt they would be greater.  I don't know about Mravinsky, but Bernstein's recordings are usually not noted for their extreme pianissimos, while Karajan's often are. Of course, that may be mostly the difference between Sony/Columbia and DG.

[The new erato]

As solo piano recordings are known to be the most difficult recordings to reproduce realistically on sound equipment, I would say solo piano works should be considered.  

[lukeottevanger]

Interesting.....wanting to see if I was right to remember old comments about wide dynamic range in Rattle's CBSO recordings I ran a Google search and came up with this - a report on a loudspeaker test, with a few comments on how it performed with a variety of CDs, one of which is indeed a Rattle/CBSO disc of Szymanowski's 3rd, a disc which I can attest does indeed have an extraordinarily large range (the climax of that symphony is one of the most massive in the repertoire  ).

[Haffner]

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 ?

That's my guess. A staggering achievement.

In my opinion, only the Shostakovich 4th (and perhaps some of the work of Aaron Copland) has matched it, from an overall quality perspective, since its publishing.

I should elaborate, I don't rate the above pieces according to their range alone, but at least as much for their obviously painstaking craftmanship.  Of course, that's just my personal standards. Die Alpensinfonie just seemed to be the career summit for Strauss, combining his Wagner and Mozart fetishes with his earlier, more 20th century "experimental", side.

Tchaikovsky's 6th has quite the range as well.

[George]

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 ?

If it's between this work and the Tchaikovsky 6th, the Strauss wins by a landslide, or should I say avalanche? 

[PerfectWagnerite]

For my money:

Pines of the Appian Way, Ottorino Respighi.

[Holden]

One piece sprung immediately to mind and that is the Reiner recording of the William Tell Overture. So soft at the beginning that I think I've got the volume too low and yet I don't dare turn it up as i know what's coming.