# Favorite Work for String Orchestra?



## Nix

I've just become acquainted with Britten's 'Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge' and so thus feel the need to start a thread about works for string orchestra. One of the things that struck me about it is how much it sounds like the present day film composer Thomas Newman (Shawshank Redemption, Finding Nemo). Only it has the structure and personality of a classical score. Anyways, love it and recommend to really anyone, seeing as how much it has to offer.

And so to gauge public opinion on the matter, a poll. Which is your favorite work for string orchestra and why... and lets keep _greatest_ out of it, shall we?

There are a lot of good ones, sorry if I left something out!


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## Klavierspieler

_So Difficult!!!_

I guess I'll go with Tallis Fantasia.


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## itywltmt

I picked the Tchaikovsky Serenade, with the Dvorak serenade as a close second. All of the listed works are very good, though!


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## Trout

Penderecki seems out of place on this pole. While the other works can be classified as beautiful or lovely, _Threnody to the victims of Hiroshima_ is just plain eerie and terrifying.

Anyways, Vaughan Williams all the way, though Tchaikovsky, Barber, and Dvorak are great as well.


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## Nix

The Tchaikovsky is a great piece... I think this is one of the few polls where you can vote for 'Tchaikovsky' and not feel embarrassed


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## mmsbls

I voted Dvorak. It's simply gorgeous. I would place Tchaikovsky and Vaughan Williams a very close second.


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## Sid James

Nix said:


> I've just become acquainted with *Britten's 'Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge'* and so thus feel the need to start a thread about works for string orchestra...


Agreed, that Britten piece was my intro to the modern string orchestra area.

But I chose* R. Strauss' Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings* because it's my favourite, I've even heard it live three times. It deserves the attention/respect it generally gets. A very emotional piece, it grabs me to the max, unlike what I feel about a lot of the rest of this composer's music, which doesn't really interest me that much. I'm angry at those people who leave during interval before this work is played, they are simply ignorant and rude, this is a masterpiece of it's kind. Even my sister, who was in her teens when she first heard it in concert, was very moved by it (even though she's never been a classical music fan). Musical appreciation has a lot to do with flexibility, imo.

But I like all you have listed, they are all superb. Most of them I've heard live over the years, this is a favourite thing to do of mine, go to concerts of this type of music.

Other works for string orchestra which I like -

Hovhaness - Celestial Fantasy
Tippett - Concerto for Double String Orch.
Warlock - Capriol Suite
Corelli - 12 Concerti Grossi
Takemitsu - Three Film Scores for string orch.
Prokofiev - Visions Fugitives (transcribed from piano by R. Barshai with approval of composer)
Hindemith - Five Pieces for string orch., Op. 44
Shostakovich - Chamber Symphony Op. 110a (trans. by Barshai from SQ#8)
Myaskovsky - Sinfonietta for string orch.
Vivaldi - Any of his string concertos
Xenakis - Shaar
Lutoslawski - Preludes & Fugue for 13 solo strings
Ligeti - Ramifications for string orch.
Vaughan Williams - Five Variants of Dives & Lazarus; Partita for Double String Orch.
Mahler - Adagietto from Symphony #5; Adagio from Symphony #10
F. Martin - Polyptyque for violin & two small string orchs.
Mozart - Salzburg Symphonies (Divertimentos KV. 136-138)
B. Herrmann - Suite for string orch. from film score to Hitchcock's _Psycho_
Elgar - Sospiri; Serenade for strings
P. Sculthorpe - Little Suite for string orch.
R. Meale - Cantilena Pacifica for string orch. (arr. of his SQ#2)
Arvo Part - Summa for strings
H. Purcell - Chacony in G minor
Haydn (Hoffmeister) - Serenade for strings

I could go on and on, I love this medium to the max...



> ... and lets keep _greatest_ out of it, shall we?


Yes, & that boring objective vs. subjective "debate," mega-yawn. Goes on for dozens of pages, literally. Achieves a lot of hot air but nothing else. So good on you, "favourite" is better, imho.


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## hawk

Tchaikovskys Serenade got me started~
I listen to it every now and then and it is still beautiful maybe even more now...


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## Manxfeeder

I wish I didn't have to pick just one. I closed my eyes and picked Tchaikovsky's, but I could have easily picked several others on the list. And I especially agree with Sid about Metamorphosen.


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## Ukko

Several excellent works listed, and the _Threnody_ is a helluva piece of music. I picked the Bartók, because the magic it works changes with each hearing - and they are all good magics.


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## tdc

I also went with Bartok. I almost clicked on Mendelssohn though...

The Threnody is a great piece but not something I'd listen to very often.


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## Weston

Sid James said:


> . . .
> Tippett - Concerto for Double String Orch.
> Warlock - Capriol Suite
> . . .
> Ligeti - Ramifications for string orch.
> . . .
> 
> I could go on and on, I love this medium to the max...


Me too. The Warlock Capriol Siute is amazing. I've heard some people say it is too simple to play, but what does that matter? I'd love to hear the Tippett and the Ligeti.

I went with the Vaughan-Williams, didn't even have to think on it. That piece has a lot of unintentional meaning to me. I also really enjoy the Mendelssohn string symphonies but I might consider them a separate genre. They are very nearly baroque.

I enjoy some of Beethoven's string quartets in a string orchestra setting. They translate very well, and I wonder why this is not done more often. Surely the string orchestra has a more pleasing timbre to the general public than does the string quartet.

It seems hard to write a mediocre piece for string orchestra.

[Edit: Okay - I have heard the Tippet. I just didn't remember it.  ]


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## Sid James

Weston said:


> ...The Warlock Capriol Siute is amazing. I've heard some people say it is too simple to play, but what does that matter?...


I agree that's not relevant to the listener, maybe it is to musicians (eg. not that gratifying to play?). It's the only work I know so far by Warlock, and it is of a very high standard, imo. Modern yet traditional (in terms of it being an arrangement of old French dances, or the dance forms, etc.).



> ...I'd love to hear the Tippett and the Ligeti...


In terms of the Ligeti (since you say you've heard the Tippett, which is also great, the work that gave him his first "big break"), _Ramifications_ is entirely for acoustic instruments, but in parts it sounds mechanical/electronic (it's probably microtonal, going far beyond the normal octave, like Xenakis) & bits of it reminded a friend of mine of scurrying insects. So it's got this artificial feel, as well as natural. Apart from the version for full string orchestra, there's also a version for I think 12 or so solo strings.



> I went with the Vaughan-Williams, didn't even have to think on it. That piece has a lot of unintentional meaning to me....


This is a very innovative piece, for the first time bringing into the concert hall sounds that had previously been restricted to churches & choral (eg. Tallis, English Renaissance music). I'd hazard a guess that some people in the audience that first heard it would have maybe thought it a bit odd for that reasons. I think people now, given the poplarity of the piece, think it's like cliched English patoralism, much copied & repeated, but back then it was not like that, it was a new direction.



> I enjoy some of Beethoven's string quartets in a string orchestra setting. They translate very well, and I wonder why this is not done more often. Surely the string orchestra has a more pleasing timbre to the general public than does the string quartet...


I agree, I would like to hear the string orchestra versions of those live, although I have enjoyed them in their original SQ format, this year I heard the Op. 132, which was great. I think that maybe with some issues raised by the HIP movement, people don't see orchestrations of the Beethoven SQs (eg. Bernstein's & I think Weingartner also did some) as "legit" or "kosher," they are seen as a distortion & not "the real deal." I think it may be connected to some people's obsession with "authenticity," whatever that is...


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## mmsbls

@Sid: Thanks for the list. While I've heard several on your list, there are quite a few that I have not heard. I'm slowly working my way through them.

I selected Prokofiev's Visions Fugitives on Naxos and noticed that Stravinsky has a Concerto for Strings. I'm listening to that as I write this and soon will hear the Prokofiev.


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## haydnfan

Tchaikovsky for me.


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## Sid James

I'll also add two others that are favourite works of mine transcribed for string orchestra, but originally for string sextet (I'd hazard a guess that most of you have heard these, but just for ther record) -

*Tchaikovsky* - _Souvenir de Florence_
*Schoenberg *- _Transfigured Night_

...which makes me think, why weren't* Brahms' *two string sextets transcribed for orchestra? It would have been a great project for Schoenberg, as he re-arranged Brahms' _Piano Quartet #1_ as an orchestral piece. Which brings me to Schoenberg's pupil *Alban Berg * who arranged _Three Pieces _ from his _Lyric Suite _(originally for string quartet, movements I, III and IV)) for string orchestra in 1927. I haven't heard the orchestration, I only know the original, but it must be good...


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## Jeremy Marchant

Of the ones on the list I'd go for _Metamorphosen_, but Tippett's_ Fantasia concertante on a theme of Corelli_ is, despite its academic name, absolutely gorgeous, full of the humanity and intensity that Tippett brought to _The midsummer marriage_, in the setting of the English pastoral scene


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## woodwind_fan

Metamorphosen is one of my favourite works of all time, and I don't even play a string instrument! Easy choice for me...


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Mendelssohn's String Symphony number 12 and *Ligeti's* Ramifications. I don't think this should have been a poll since there are _so_ many more string orchestra works you haven't included.


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## Badinerie

Metamorphosen, again from the list, but if you don't count the trumpet at the end, Honegger's second.


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## Xaltotun

_Metamorphosen,_ certainly. Another one that I really like is Schoenberg's _Verklärte Nacht_ arranged for string orchestra.


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## luismsoaresmartins

Although being very "obscure" works, Joly Braga Santos "Concerto for Strings" and "Sinfonietta for Strings Orchestra" are some of my favorite works of this genre. Those were recorded in recent times in Naxos, with Álvaro Cassuto conducting.
On the options on this poll, I've chosen Vaughan William's "Tallis Fantasia", but Strauss' "Metamorphosen" was a also a strong candidate.


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