# Orchestrated Chamber Music



## mrmahler

Firstly, I am a new member and this is my first post so handle with care! 
I think this question is virtually guaranteed to irritate most chamber music enthusiasts and some may even consider it sacrilegious, but here goes. 
I am a long-time listener to orchestral music and in particular symphonic works but have always found smaller scale chamber pieces do not sustain my interest.
I was wondering if anyone was aware of any quality chamber pieces that have been fully orchestrated and been recorded by a full size symphony orchestra?


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## Art Rock

There are plenty. This is one of the most famous ones (Brahms/Schönberg "Piano-Quartet op 25"):


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## Pugg

Beethoven: String Quartets Nos. 14 & 16 are also very well orchestrated , Bernstein recorded them on DG


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## Joe B

Shostakovich's "Chamber Symphony in C Minor" and "Symphony for Strings in A Major" are orchestrated versions of two of his string quartets.


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## Quartetfore

Mendelssohn`s Octet, and the Tchaikovsky Sextet a number of times.


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## cougarjuno

Schoenberg's String Sextet Verklarte Nacht orchestrated for full string section; Ravel's Tzigane for violin and piano for violin and orchestra; more on the obscure side but an absolutely wonderful work is Alfred Hill's Symphony No 12 which is an orchestration of his String Quartet No. 13. Camille Saint-Saens also orchestrated several of his chamber works.


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## jegreenwood

Debussy's "First Rhapsody for Clarinet" was first written for clarinet and piano and later orchestrated by the composer.


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## Quartetfore

There is a very interesting version of Verklarte Nacht for Piano, but I like original Sextet version the best of all the three.


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## Roger Knox

*Correction re Barber*

Samuel Barber's famous _Adagio for Strings_ for string orchestra (admittedly not full-sized symphony orchestra) was his arrangement of the second movement of his _String Quartet, op. 11_.

Hans Pfitzner's _Symphony in C# Minor_ was adapted by him from his _String Quartet, Op. 36_.


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## MarkW

Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin was originally a piano piece, which he then orchestrated all but one movement of.


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## cougarjuno

I think there were two pieces not orchestrated -- Fugue and Toccata


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## starthrower




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## SuperTonic

Mahler arranged Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet for a full string orchestra.


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## Manxfeeder

I don't know of Bach's organ music is considered chamber music, but Stokowski had fun orchestrating them.


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## Heliogabo

Berio orchestrated one of Brahms clarinet sonatas, which became a kind of gorgeus clarinet concerto.


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## Botschaft

I will take the opportunity to once again mention Atterberg's arrangement of Brahms' second string sextet.


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## Triplets

mrmahler said:


> Firstly, I am a new member and this is my first post so handle with care!
> I think this question is virtually guaranteed to irritate most chamber music enthusiasts and some may even consider it sacrilegious, but here goes.
> I am a long-time listener to orchestral music and in particular symphonic works but have always found smaller scale chamber pieces do not sustain my interest.
> I was wondering if anyone was aware of any quality chamber pieces that have been fully orchestrated and been recorded by a full
> 
> size symphony orchestra?


Welcome aboard, btw. I've just seen this thread for the first time and probably can't add much to what other posters have said, but it's a good topic for discussion.
I honestly can't think of one chamber work that I like more in an expanded Orchestral form. My two near exceptions would be the Schoenberg Orchestration of the Brahms Piano Quartet which shows a zany side of Schoenberg that I had never encountered elsewhere, and the expansion of the scherzo from the Mendelssohn Octet. The latter is almost an Orchestral piece to begin with, with 8 string players going at it,
One feature of a lot of great chamber pieces is the sense of the instruments straining the boundaries to the limit. Expanding it to 
full size makes it sound to easy, like using a Rolls Royce to exit your driveway


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## Becca

There is a number of orchestrations of Beethoven's _Grosse Fugue_. I believe that the one recorded by Otto Klemperer is the version by Felix Weingartner.


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## joen_cph

Tønnesen has recorded all the late *Beethoven* Quartets in versions for string orchestra, for BIS.

Bashmet recorded a *Reger* _solo viola suite _orchestrated by Poltoratsky, and *Brahms*´ _Clarinet Quintet _orchestrated by Bashmet.

Y.P. Tortelier recorded his orchestration of *Ravel*´s _Piano Trio._

In the field of keybord works, besides *Mussorgsky*´s _Pictures_, recent years have seen a couple of *Carl Nielsen* orchestrations by contemporary, Danish composers - 
the _3 Piano Pieces_ and _Commotio _for organ (a work of his sometimes thought of as expressing a symphony-like ambition).

Svetlanov recorded *Tchaikovsky*´s _Seasons_ in an orchestrated version.

*Alban Berg*´s _Piano Sonata_ exists in a recorded, orchestrated version too (Decca), and *Schumann*´s _Carnival _was orchestrated by Glazunov (not so memorable, however).

*Ravel*´s _Gaspard de la Nuit_ can also be heard orchestrated on you-tube, in a version by Marius Constant.


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## Blancrocher

Schnittke orchestrated his own Piano Quintet (one of his best works) as "In Memoriam..."

Recommended album:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQCcGUD2It6NLUMN9jPPUjyNu0gyJaMwA

And there's a nice version of the string trio, orchestrated by Yuri Bashmet:










It appears on a great album with the Viola Concerto.


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## Ras

Becca said:


> There is a number of orchestrations of Beethoven's _Grosse Fugue_. I believe that the one recorded by Otto Klemperer is the version by Felix Weingartner.


I only like *Beethoven's Grosse Fuge in orchestrated versions*. 
On cd I have *Klemperer* and also *Karajan* - I don't know who made the arrangements. 
On Spotify I located another five conductors who recorded the Grosse Fuge with orchestra:
*1.Ernest Ansermet
2. Michael Gielen
3. Neville Marriner
4. Kent Nagano
5. Furtwangler*


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