Beethoven String Quartet Op 131 finale - for Orchestra

[gprengel]

For me the greatest string quartett Finale is the one from Beethoven op. 131 c#-minor - and it  is also most fitting for a symphonic orchestration. Here my attempt to do that:

www.gerdprengel.de/Beeth-op131-7-orch.mp3    -   I think it is breathtaking !  But are the trumpets a bit too loud?

Gerd

[matesic]

Maybe 20% faster? I think it would be hard to programme because it sounds so much like a "finale" to something.

[Alan Howe]

I enjoyed this, but I'm not sure that it's an advance over the original. Does this sort of treatment actually make the music sound too easy?

[gprengel]

Thank you, matesic, you are right! I increased now the tempo by 20% as you said and I have now the same duration as the Alban Berg Quartett and it is much better now :-) Check it ... How good to have a forum like this and learn from others ...

[matesic]

I didn't think I'd say it but now it really works - well done! The style and orchestration are of course very reminiscent of the seventh symphony finale and it's possible to imagine Beethoven might have done it himself.  Encore piece for centenary year?

[Gareth Vaughan]

A huge improvement - it sounds really good now. Well done! are you going to orchestrate the rest of the quartet?

[gprengel]

are you going to orchestrate the rest of the quartet?

I am not so sure whether the first movements are so fitting for a symphony orchestra, but I have done the same with the quartetts op. 130 and 135, what I love very much. I may post it in the coming days ...

[Alan Howe]

I agree. This is now much better - a sort of 'angry cousin' to the finale of Beethoven 7! Very enjoyable. Quite wonderful, in fact.

I don't think the trumpets are too loud. I wonder, in fact, whether they could actually be louder?

[matesic]

I find it hard to imagine how the rest of the Op131 might be orchestrated, Beethoven's concept is so sublime and the prevailing mood of the first four movements so intimate. A few months ago I heard an established British quartet play it live, and came away in a filthy temper! For some reason they thought it was in need of interpretative assistance and exaggerated the tempi and dynamics beyond all reason. The cellist's sforzandi almost had me shouting in protest!

[eschiss1]

Though I always prefer to hear it in the original form now, my ears were turned on to the quartet (after having heard it a few times in a good complete cycle) when I heard Bernstein's arrangement by accident one day years back, as I recall...