Arrangements

[Dorsetmike]

I think some they work, others don't; I seem to find more don't work than do; what are your ones that do or don't?

A couple of the don'ts for me, the orchestral arrangement of Bach's Toccata and Fugue (the Disney Fantasia version in particular), those dreadful oboe versions of well known vocal works like "Where 'Ere You Walk" way over embellished, most Harpsichord works suffer when played on Piano.

Of the "improvements" the Harp arrangement of Einaudi's "Le Onde" stands out (frequently played on Classic FM), for me anything of Einaudi's can only be improved!

 

[JHC]

The orchestral version of pictures at an exhibition not as good as the original piano version

 

[Krummhorn]

I have an arrangement of "Pictures" for the organ. A challenging piece for certain, having only played certain parts that I can muster through given the inadequate resources of organ stops and capture systems.

I've heard the T & F in D minor played by an orchestra too ... wasn't impressed much by it, although it was well performed. The 'mechanical' sounds of a pipe organ just cannot be duplicated by string/wind instruments.

I feel that pieces that were written for a certain instrumentation should always be played as they were intended by the composer.

What is gawd awful to me is those horrid organ transcriptions from an original piano piece. Seeing bass notes far below the bass clef that are impossible to play on the organ (unless one had masses of 32' and 62' registers).

 

[JHC]

Now I can't agree with Mike that most harpsichord works are spoiled when performed on piano but then I am not a fan of the harpsichord so a wee bit biased.

I was recently given a CD of 'The art of fugue' played by the Emerson St Qt, now this just does not work for me being more of a musical exercise well suited to keyboard instruments.

 

[Manolito Mystiq]

I really liked the arrangement of Handel's Sarabande from the Suite in D minor HWV 437 in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon​.

 

[sk8london]

Hear hear

Yes, I don't like orchestral versions of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in d; too romantic and for me the characteristics of the piece are inherent to keyboard instruments and don't translate to the orchestra that well. Bussoni's solo piano arrangement works much better there.

I have heard a fair bit of Chopin arranged and played on the organ and not convinced it works at all in most cases. Chopin, I think, is best left to be performed on the piano

There are some really great piano arrangements of popular film music (Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean etc.) which I think work quite well on the piano.
Equally there are some good organ solo arrangements of Handel's concertos for orchestra and organ. Given a decent organ and a competent performer they tend to sound good to me.

 

[Krummhorn]

. . . Equally there are some good organ solo arrangements of Handel's concertos for orchestra and organ. Given a decent organ and a competent performer they tend to sound good to me.

Indeed ... I have played some of those as well.