String orchestra

[ewk]

Hi all,

It seems that no specific thread about this has been started so far?

I play in a local string orchestra and different than for symphony orchestra, there are not so many "classics" or "must-plays" for string orchestra, maybe exept the tchaikovsky serenade.
Now I was searching for romantic pieces (I know that there is plenty of Bach, Vivaldi etc. but I think that there is a lot of music for Strings in the Romantic era as well) under a few conditions:
1) only strings playing
2) not too difficult (even the famous tchaikovsky serenade is too difficult at some places, remember it's an amateur orchestra)
3) arrangements are totally ok for us
4) would be nice if the work was public domain, i.e. composer is dead for at least 70 years (ore a little less, so we could play it in some years)
5) not too important: score is available on the internet (e.g. imslp)
6) every kind of composition is welcome: concertos (soloist and strings), symphony or sinfonietta, serenade, little pieces...
7) composers not necessarily unsung, but unsung ones are equally welcome

My personal favourites so far:
finzi: romance, eclogue
grieg: 2 elegiac melodies, peer gynt arrangement
willy ostijn: nocturne
barber: adagio (maybe too difficult because it's so high!)
atterberg: suites
William Lloyd Webber (the musical composer's father): serenade
Herzogenberg: Die Geburt Christi (with choir and organ)
shchedrin: carmen-suite
eric withacre: everything he wrote for strings

and a lot more, i have collected everything which came across my way in a big list, if someone is interested, please contact me.

So lists are welcome in this thread, but some explanation is always nice in case you know more about a piece.

Thanks in advance,
ewk

edit: on youtube, there is an arrangement of grieg's piano concerto for strings (first movement), definitively one of my favourites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj-wKTNIdis

[JimL]

Juon: Kleine Sinfonie in A minor.  It says it's for chamber orchestra, but it's just strings.

[Gareth Vaughan]

There is a nice Serenade for strings by Ferdinand Thieriot - score and parts available to borrow from the Fleisher Collection at nominal cost.

[JimL]

Any of Holst's suites for strings that he composed for the girls' schools that employed him, i.e. St. Paul's Suite.  A high school orchestra could play them.  Mine did.

[JimL]

If you have a piano soloist there's a download in the archives under Russian and Soviet music of Four Postludes for Piano and Strings by Valentin Silvestrov.  They're all slow movements, so that should be well in the grasp of amateurs.  And they're exquisite.

[eschiss1]

likewise re piano soloist, at IMSLP there's several nice works for piano and strings by Willy Ostijn (1913-93) which sound rather early 20th-century- I recommend the Rhapsody for piano and strings in C (1965) (there's a performance on site to listen to, and score and parts.)

[ewk]

Hi all,

thanks for the hints so far!

On IMSLP, i found the autograph of a triple concerto (Violin, Viola, Cello) and strings by Julius Röntgen – does anyone know anything about the piece? I don't think there's a recording as very few works of Röntgen are recorded so far – in relation to his enormous output...

[eschiss1]

I'm getting a hint online that Tovey wrote a program note for the triple concerto (that turned up, like others of his, in his terrific collection "Essays in Musical Analysis". I don't recall reading that but it's been at least 20 years since I read any of those, unfortunately, really (really) good though I remember them being. I know of no recording. (Yes, I'm aware of the other Röntgen-Tovey connections- the Edinburgh Symphony in F minor recently rediscovered, the 2 piano concertos 1929/30.)

[Alan Howe]

Please could we stick to the site's stylistic remit? Thanks!

[eschiss1]

Have Richard Wüerst' Russian Suite (pub.1864) or Moór's serenade (1881) (both for string orchestra) been commercially recorded?

[chill319]

Two splendid serenades for strings are found complete on Dutton CDLX 7238: Herbert's opus 12 (1897) and Foote's opus 25 (1891). Two movements of the Foote get the royal treatment on Naxos 8.559365.

[EdwardHan]

Serenades by Robert Fuchs and Karlowicz will be good.