# Suites for orchestra



## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

This post is for those who like suites for orchestra.There are plenty of great ones out there that i have heard.
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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Can I hope to suggest that none of the suites named will be those which were reduced from larger and longer works? (EX: Stravinsky _Firebird Suite_.)

I would include Partitas, a suite all but in name.

I'm fond of Grieg's Holberg Suite, the orchestration for string orchestra by the composer (with a bit of intelligent rewriting) of his original for piano.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

There's an early one by Bartók. Nielsen wrote a symphonic suite for piano... well, maybe that doesn't fit here.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I think it qualifies as a suite... Rosenthal's orchestration of Offenbach, Gaite Parisienne. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to this and been just as delighted as the first time I heard it. (Fiedler's Living Stereo version).


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

PetrB said:


> Can I hope to suggest that none of the suites named will be those which were reduced from larger and longer works? (EX: Stravinsky _Firebird Suite_.)


A good point, PetrB. Tangentially, I am often disappointed by the frequency with which great works are reduced into "suites".

A composer we both enjoy, Rameau: his operas are frequently reduced into "orchestral suites"--overture, a few dance movements, etc. While I understand, of course, that projected sales and interest cannot justify the setting of a full opera, I still lament that great works are so reduced. It's worse when those "suites" are the only obtainable bits of the larger works in question.

To the OP, I'm very partial to Sibelius' Lemminkäinen Suite, Op. 22.


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

Fine THEN here are some famous suites :the nutcracker by TCHAIKOVSKY he also has other suites like the 1,2,3 & 4.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Whenever a piece is called "Suite", it makes me wonder if the piece is complete. In many cases, suites are excerpts from ballet or opera scores. Personally I'm not one for those types of suites, even if they're sanctioned by the composer. I'd rather hear the complete work, even if that means taking up 2 or more hours.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

maestro267 said:


> Whenever a piece is called "Suite", it makes me wonder if the piece is complete. In many cases, suites are excerpts from ballet or opera scores. Personally I'm not one for those types of suites, even if they're sanctioned by the composer. I'd rather hear the complete work, even if that means taking up 2 or more hours.


The suites from the Baroque era are complete. They are often a series of pieces, a prelude or overture, followed by a number of varied movements in dance forms, often ending in an upbeat gigue, or other lively dance. Partitas follow a very similar format, a series of movements, or 'parts' comprising the whole.

There are a number of later and contemporary examples which followed the older formats.

The Nutcracker Suite, Firebird Suite, The collection of Offenbach made into Gaite Parisienne, etc. ARE extracted from full length Ballets, operas, etc.


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## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

American suite by Dvorak 
Karelia suite by Sibelius
Perfect Fool suite by Holst


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

*Otakar Ostrcil*´s _Suite in c-minor_ is a great piece, almost Mahlerian in spirit; unfortunately it is not to be found on you-t.

*Reger*´s _"Romantische Suite"_ and "_Böcklin Suite_" should certainly also be mentioned, as well as *Delius´* "_Florida Suite_", *Bach*´s _4 suites_, *Bartok*´s 2 early "_Suites_" and "_Dance Suite_", *Frank Bridge*´s suite "_The Sea_" and his "_Suite for Strings_", plus *Nielsen*´s "_Little Suite for Strings_".

And yet another vote for *Sibelius*´ "_Lemminkainen-Suite_"  ...


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## Ravndal (Jun 8, 2012)

_Suite Pastorale_ by Chabrier

Just beautiful.


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2013)

All of Sibelius' suites, really


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## TrevBus (Jun 6, 2013)

My favorite; Dvorak's 'Czech Suite'. First Dvorak music I heard.
Others I enjoy:
Prokofiev' 'Chout suite'
Reger's 'Eine romantische Suite'
Rimsky-Korsakov"s Suites from his operas. 'Invisible City of Kitezh' and 'Christmas Eve'
Shostakovich. All 5 of his 'Ballet Suites' and 'Katerina Ismailova' The Chandos recording w/Neeme Jarvi conducting is a real find, IMO.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I think the reduction option makes sense in some ballets, film or incidental music where maybe the strength of the story and the overall music isn't totally self-sufficient for it to exist in its own right. As a result I nominate Shostakovich's The Fall of Berlin, Bartok's Wooden Prince and Prokofiev's The Prodigal Son. Perhaps a more obvious example is Grieg's Peer Gynt but I can't comment as I've never heard the whole work in its entirety, but most people seem more familiar when it's 'boiled down' into the suites.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

elgars ghost said:


> I think the reduction option makes sense in some ballets, film or incidental music where maybe the strength of the story and the overall music isn't totally self-sufficient for it to exist in its own right. As a result I nominate Shostakovich's The Fall of Berlin, Bartok's Wooden Prince and Prokofiev's The Prodigal Son. Perhaps a more obvious example is Grieg's Peer Gynt but I can't comment as I've never heard the whole work in its entirety, but most people seem more familiar when it's 'boiled down' into the suites.


Peer Gynt is a play by Ibsen and Grieg wrote the incidental music for the work.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

The baroque suite is an awesome genre. It becomes a kind of fun ritual when expecting an opening allemande, a sarabande, maybe a minuet and then always ending with a gigue -- but will there be a courante? Or other movements like a passepied or a gavotte? I love that stuff.

My favorites:

Bach - The "French" keyboard suites
Bach - the lute suites
Bach - The orchestral suites
Handel - Water Music
Telemann - Suite for recorder (or transverse flute) in A minor
Telemann - quite a bit of Tafelmusik (Musique de Table)

But what is even more fun for me are suites of ancient music in modern orchestral settings:
Respighi - 3 Ancient Airs and Dances Suites
Kodaly - Dances of Galánta
Warlock - Capriol Suite


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I love orchestral suites taken from opera-ballets by Rameu (especially Naïs), orchetsral suites by Telemann and Bach, suite from The Tempest by *Sibelius,* suite from Pelleas et Melisande by *Sibelius,* Lemminkäinen Suite by *Sibelius,* Ancient Airs and Dances suites by Respighi, Mother Goose suite by Ravel, La Mer by Debussy, suite from The Firebird by Stravinsky, the suites of orchestral pieces by Berg, Schoenberg and Webern.


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)




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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

*The Planets* by Holst. Marvellous!


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

Hindemith. Metamorphosis on themes by Von weber


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Alfredo Casella: Suite in Do Maggiore


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