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)

3/19 Jurowski on Beethoven's 4th and 7th Symphonies

I first heard Vladimir Jurowski at a BBC Proms concert broadcast where he conducted, among others, Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "Dialoge".  This piece is as contemporary as it gets, very complex and very dense - so I naturally pigeon-holed him as a contemporary classical specialist, especially after Jurowski named Zimmermann as the most important 20th Century composer.  That was clearly my own ignorance since I've since found out that he's the Principal Guest Conductor with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, who specialize in historically-informed baroque and classical period works...

Sometimes I wonder how well contemporary music advocates do with Beethoven's music and usually I'm disappointed ("cough" boulez "cough" ardittiquartet) but Jurowski brings a youthful excitement and vigor to the proceedings which truly amazes me.  His Coriolan Overture is exciting as hell and today he does the 4th and 7th Symphonies with the OAE...

(81 min)
Symphony 4 (Parts 1-5)
Symphony 7 (Parts 6-10)
Bonus Interview about Mahler arrangements
Uploaded by YT-er OedipusTyrannus
As sometimes happens, this video is not embeddable in the blog by request of the uploader, so click below to go to the Playlist and you can "Play All" to see all parts in sequence. See the bottom of the screen for additional controls, like auto-play, shuffle etc...
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