Beethoven piano sonata op. 109 for orchestra

[gprengel]

Today I began to record anew my orchestration of the op. 109 piano sonata with NotePerformer which is so much better than what I used a few years ago that I am almost ashamed of my former recording.

Here is the Scherzo. I hope it will throw a new light on the greatness of this awesome Beethoven Scherzo of this sonata:

http://www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth_op109_II_orch.mp3
http://www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth_op109_II_orch.pdf

I hope you'll like it ... the other movements will follow if you are interested...

Gerd

[Peter]

Gerd I'm going to be brutally honest so please don't take offence! I much prefer the original piano version and I'm not sure what you mean by shedding new light on the work's greatness by orchestrating it? This is not to distract from the fact that I think your arranging skills are really impressive, but to my mind the late piano sonatas push the sonorities and capabilities of the instrument to new limits that an orchestral version does away with.

[Fidelio]

Never wanting to disparage anyone from their creative ideas, but I echo Peter's comments. The late piano sonatas and string quartets are just ground breaking, ingenious and stand alone in this sphere.

[gprengel]

Thank you for responses. I understand and respect your View but still I find so much joy and satisfaction in orchestrating the last 3 piano sonatas and last string quartetts that I still will continue to do so for myself but won't present it here...no problem...

Gerd

[Chris]

I don't know - I still find value in listening to these arrangements, which I think are very good. They do make the individual lines easier to follow, and I think that reveals something. And as an exercise in orchestration, it is very good to hear something I am very familiar with as a piano piece re-imagined for orchestra, as it gives me some ideas about how I might orchestrate an original piece.

[Peter]

Thank you for responses. I understand and respect your View but still I find so much joy and satisfaction in orchestrating the last 3 piano sonatas and last string quartetts that I still will continue to do so for myself but won't present it here...no problem...

Gerd

Please don't be put off from posting your arrangements here because of my preferences - they are always interesting to listen to even if I tend to prefer originals being a bit of a purist! I do have some arrangements of the late quartets for string orchestra which work very well, but again though I listen to them from time to time, my preference is for the original because of the more intimate nature of the medium.

[Fidelio]

"Do not merely practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; it deserves that, for only art and science can exalt man to divinity!.

LvB July 17, 1812.

[gprengel]

Hi, since some of you have shared their interest for my orchestration I present here now the whole sonata for those who want to listen to it, esecially the glorious final Andante movement:

http://www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth_op109_I_orch.mp3
http://www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth_op109_II_orch.mp3

http://www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth_op109_III_orch.mp3
http://www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth_op109_III_orch.pdf

I strongly recommend to listen to these with headphones!


Special is the very pianistic first movement. I could orchestrate this only by using also the harp...

Gerd

[Quijote]

Hi, since some of you have shared their interest for my orchestration I present here now the whole sonata for those who want to listen to it, esecially the glorious final Andante movement:

http://www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth_op109_I_orch.mp3
http://www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth_op109_II_orch.mp3

http://www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth_op109_III_orch.mp3
http://www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth_op109_III_orch.pdf

I strongly recommend to listen to these with headphones!


Special is the very pianistic first movement. I could orchestrate this only by using also the harp...

Gerd

I listened to the third movement, which at the beginning sounded very much like Elgar! The pizzacato passages didn't work for me at all.
I appreciate that you have spent much time, effort and skill in orchestrating this great sonata but my view is that your orchestration vastly reduces the tensions in the original piano version; even more telling, perhaps, is that the orchestrations do not sound particularly "Beethovenian".