What solo work would you have liked to be orchestral?

[Overtones]

I was listening to Schubert's D959, the Andantino to be precise, and I sort of naturally figured it in my head with an orchestral arrangement and thought it would be awesome if such a score actually existed.


What pieces of music have the same effect for you?

[Mahlerian]

I actually made an orchestration of Schoenberg's Sechs kleine Klavierstucke, so I guess that counts.  I tried to keep the scale very restrained, though, and the scoring is very soloistic, and tries only to reflect the structure of the pieces themselves with changes in color.

[Baron Scarpia]

Generally I don't find myself attracted to piano music transcribed for orchestra. Even when done by the composer (i.e. Ravel's many pieces that were first written on piano and transcribed). One exception is Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Haydn.

Sometimes I listen to Bach's keyboard Suites and think that they could be transcribed for a wind ensemble. Someone did it, and I liked the result.

[asin]B002KPW3YY[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

I don't mind orchestral transcriptions as long as they keep somewhat of the spirit of the original incarnation of the work. I think Ravel's piano music is much better than his orchestral arrangements, but there are some cases where I do love what he did with orchestration like for example: Ma mère l'Oye and Une barque sur l'océan from Miroirs. I also enjoy many of the Debussy orchestrations from other composers/arrangers like André Caplet's arrangements of Children's Corner and Le martyre de Saint Sébastien, Fragments symphoniques. But, I do think some of the Debussy orchestrations just were unnecessary like Colin Matthews' Préludes or Holloway's En blanc et noir for example.

[mc ukrneal]

I don't think I've met a transcription I didn't like.

[Maestro267]

Everything. Chamber music too. I tend to get easily bored when listening to a single "sound world" (solo piano, string quartet, unaccompanied choir, etc.) on its own for an particularly extended period. I much prefer the varied colours offered by the orchestra. Even if there are unaccompanied passages, such as a cadenza or an a cappella part in a choral-orchestral work, I do enjoy them, but I wouldn't want nothing but that. I need the full palette of the entire orchestra.

The one exception is organ music, but then the organ's sounds are so varied that it can be likened to a "solo" orchestra.

[Cato]

The one exception is organ music, but then the organ's sounds are so varied that it can be likened to a "solo" orchestra.

True, and yet...I would not mind hearing e.g. Louis Vierne's Organ symphonies as orchestral works.  Of course, given that they fit the idiom of the organ so well, it could be difficult.

Scriabin's Ninth Piano Sonata could be a candidate, so also the two Rachmaninov sonatas.

Bruckner's String Quintet (not a solo work, but...)  has been arranged for string orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/v/1i8JdhN1EsA

[Jo498]

Generally I don't find myself attracted to piano music transcribed for orchestra. Even when done by the composer (i.e. Ravel's many pieces that were first written on piano and transcribed). One exception is Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Haydn.

AFAIK Brahms did write both versions at the same time. In fact the orchestral version was premiered a few months before the other one.
Otherwise, I generally agree. Some Ravel and Debussy are exceptions where I often like both the piano and the orchestral version almost equally well.
There are a few orchestral transcriptions I find fun (e.g. Ravel Pictures at an Exposition, Schoenberg's of the Bach E flat major P&F), lots that are somewhat interesting (and the same for chamber or piano reductions) others fairly ludicrous (e.g that Balletts by Russians based on Chopin and Schumann piano pieces) but in most cases original works best for me.
A few more exceptions: I prefer the orchestral versions of Dvorak's slavonic dances (but for Brahms' hungarian dances I prefer piano), I love the Berio orchestrations of early Mahler songs and I appreciate the orchestral version of Schubert's Grand Duo. Although the Joachim orchestration sounds too Brahmsian. Supposedly there are others but not on CD.

[Baron Scarpia]

Transcriptions of Bach's organ works for orchestra can be entertaining.

[Brian]

I have (in my head) an over-the-top ridiculous orchestration of the second/most famous Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody. The Doppler orchestration is just too square. (In my version, the violins don't enter en masse until the first section is entirely over.)

I always thought there were some works that Should Never Be Orchestrated until I heard the simply amazing Francisco Guerrero Albéniz Iberia. Too bad he died before completing it - it's one of those rare works that completely changes my idea of what's possible. I didn't know orchestrators could do that!

[amw]

I don't think I've met a transcription I didn't like.

same. sometimes they are bizarre (Schubert/Zender Winterreise, Beethoven/Hidalgo Grosse Fuge....) but always interesting to hear.

Ok, exception: not fond of things arranged for bagpipes.

[ritter]

...
Ok, exception: not fond of things arranged for bagpipes.

In my case, I was disenchanted by Debussy's orchestrations of Satie's Gymnopedies No. 1 & 3, which I only listened top for the first time quite recently.  I thought they would add an interesting twist to the music, but found them to be Debussy (a composer I admire tremendously) at his "saccharine art nouveau" worst. "Easy listening" avant la lettre...

[some guy]

same. sometimes they are bizarre (Schubert/Zender Winterreise, Beethoven/Hidalgo Grosse Fuge....) but always interesting to hear.

Ok, exception: not fond of things arranged for bagpipes.

Hahaha. I kid you not, when I first saw this thread, I thought of a companion thread: What orchestral work would you like to see transcribed for bagpipe?

But seriously, what orchestral work would you like to see transcribed for bagpipe?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

same. sometimes they are bizarre (Schubert/Zender Winterreise, Beethoven/Hidalgo Grosse Fuge....) but always interesting to hear.

Ok, exception: not fond of things arranged for bagpipes.

Completely off topic, but Thunderstruck arranged for bagpipes is rather enjoyable.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I tend to go the other way. I can think of many orchestral works I'd like to hear for solo instrument (anyone know if there is a recording of Glenn Gould's transcriptions of Elektra?)

It seems that classical music radio (at least the one here in HELL A) is obsessed with transcriptions and can never bring itself to play anything as originally written. It's always transcriptions for orchestra, OR GUITAR!! OMG!!! CAN NEVER have enough guitar!!! or Resphigi!!!! Or St. John Williams. 

Listening to KUSC, one would think St. John Williams (star wars), Resphigi, and a smattering of Spanish guitar composers were greater than Bach and everyone else put together.

[Baron Scarpia]

Bagpipes are very good in their proper environment, which is outdoors and at least a kilometer away.

[amw]

Hahaha. I kid you not, when I first saw this thread, I thought of a companion thread: What orchestral work would you like to see transcribed for bagpipe?

But seriously, what orchestral work would you like to see transcribed for bagpipe?

I would probably listen to a bagpipe choir version of Mahler 5.

[Overtones]

I tend to go the other way. I can think of many orchestral works I'd like to hear for solo instrument (anyone know if there is a recording of Glenn Gould's transcriptions of Elektra?)

Well that'd be a nice thread too.

Off the top of my head, I'd like to listen to a solo piano arrangement of Guillaume Tell's Overture.

Also, "Prokofiev's first violin concerto", which is a very good answer to almost every question that is ever asked inside and outside this forum, anyway.

[The new erato]

I tend to go the other way. I can think of many orchestral works I'd like to hear for solo instrument (anyone know if there is a recording of Glenn Gould's transcriptions of Elektra?)

Me too.

I've just heard the Hamelin/Andsnes Rite of Spring and it's brilliant.

[Cato]

It seems that classical music radio (at least the one here in HELL A) is obsessed with transcriptions and can never bring itself to play anything as originally written. It's always transcriptions for orchestra, OR GUITAR!! OMG!!! CAN NEVER have enough guitar!!! or Resphigi!!!! Or St. John Williams. 

Listening to KUSC, one would think St. John Williams (star wars), Resphigi, and a smattering of Spanish guitar composers were greater than Bach and everyone else put together.

Dude!  I hear you!  Here in central Ohio the local classical/NPR station is obsessed with GUITAR works!!!

Maybe they think it is a way to attract teenagers, drug-addled    or otherwise  0:) ?