4/3 String Quartets Orchestrated (Mahler's Way)

Seattle Symphony conductor Milton Katims Rehearsing the orchestra w. The Budapest String Quartet. Photo: Gjon Mili/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Jan 01, 1957

Beethoven's string quartets have been orchestrated by conductor's as diverse as Dmitri Mitropoulos and Gustav Mahler. In my opinion, they don't always work, there's something raw and intimate about a solo cello part jumping up and down octaves, which a string section can't really capture in the same way - but on the other hand, some of B.'s quartet movements seem so orchestral in their original conception it seems a natural transformation.

Here's a good helping of orchestrated quartets - which for the most part succeed I think.

Lviv (Ukraine) Chamber Orchestra "Perpetuum Mobile" 2007. Musical Director Prof. Georgy Pavliy.  This was the first performance of Gustav Mahler's transcription of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 11 (op. 95) in Ukraine.

Pt 1-3 Orchestrated Arrangement of Opus 95 "Serioso"
Pt 4-7 Orchestrated Arrangement of Opus 135
Pt 8 Orchestrated Arrangement of Opus 133 "Grosse Fuge"
Pt 9 Orchestrated Arrangement of Opus 130 "Cavatina" (Furtwangler, Berlin Phil, 1940)

Linklist

Here's one more orchestrated version of Opus 95 - with better sound and video and a slightly rawer approach:

Belarusian State Chamber Orchestra. Philharmonic Hall.
Conductor - Evgeny Bushkov

String Qrtt Op.95 Orch. (Mahler Arr / Bushkov)