Bach: Transcriptions

Ottorino Respighi (Composer), Granville Bantock (Composer), Arthur Honegger (Composer), Max Reger (Composer), Edward Elgar (Composer), Ralph Vaughan Williams (Composer), Joachim Raff (Composer), Gustav Holst (Composer), Arnold Schoenberg (Composer), Leonard Slatkin (Conductor), BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Leonard Slatkin
• Composer: Ottorino Respighi, Granville Bantock, Arthur Honegger, Max Reger, Edward Elgar, et al.
• Audio CD (August 22, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B00004TZSE
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,656 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #57 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Composers > Reger, Max

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous recording and amazing sound quality, September 17, 2000

By 

Emìle Swanepoel (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bach: Transcriptions (Audio CD)

This recording might seem "inappropriate" in an age of "informed" performance practice. But the music is just so marvellous and the performances by the orchestra infectious in its conviction. Conductor Leonard Slatkin is indeed a brilliant orchestrator/illustrator and every piece comes to life in his hands in such a convincing way that it doesn't come to mind to raise any objections to these interpretations of the great JS Bach as seen through the eyes of other composers. There are moments of great splendour in these orchestrations of many of Bach's great organ works as is befitting and then there are moments of breathtaking beauty as one of the quiet organ preludes unfolds. This record is strongly recommended for the music and interpretations as much as for the excellent recorded sound.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a ride!, July 22, 2001

By 

Rory Coker (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bach: Transcriptions (Audio CD)

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Bach orchestral transcriptions were generally heard in the sedate, somewhat predictable style of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski and later conductors. That's what I encountered in those days, and it's pretty much what I've heard since.

Conductor Leonard Slatkin has had a better idea. Many a great composer (Respighi, Reger, Elgar or Vaughan Williams) has done transcriptions, and some near-greats as well (Bantock, Honegger, Raff, Holst, Schoenberg). Here's 73 minutes of absolutely wonderful stuff, as a result. These guys almost all orchestrate "balls to the wall," with tremendous energy and dynamical range, using the full resources of the full orchestra. Bach himself must have been a tremendously energetic and passionate man, and these transcriptions do him justice.

If you think of Stokowski or Eugene Ormandy when you think of Bach transcriptions, give these a try. I guarantee you'll be blown away. This CD is so addictive I have had to severely ration myself since buying it about a year ago, or I would play it over and over.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bring on More Brass, Please, October 2, 2000

By 

Thomas F. Bertonneau (Oswego, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bach: Transcriptions (Audio CD)

As the sawings on gut strings and the blattings on "period" woodwinds grate on my nerves the way fingernails dragged across a blackboard do, I welcome a revival of Bach played in transcriptions for a modern symphony orchestra, a tradition sustained and magnificently publicized although definitely not started by Leopold Stokowski during his tenure at Philadelphia. The earliest of the transcriptions recorded here, the one by Joachim Raff (1822-1882) of the solo-violin Chaconne, is among the richest, filled out in the necessary accompaniment by ingenious counterthemes and by rich, mid-nineteenth century harmonies. Ottorino Respighi and Arnold Schoenberg also dress up Bach in the accoutrements of Wagner and Mahler, the former with his colossal orchestration of the Passacaglia and Fugue and the latter with his brilliant symphonic adaptation of the "Saint Anne" Prelude and Fugue. Then there's the version of the "Fugue a la Gigue" by Gustav Holst, which comes from the same period as Holst's own Fugal Overture and Fugal Concerto. Arthur Honegger adds saxophones and a distinctly "Les Six" sound to his redoing of the Prelude and Fugue in C Major. There are rarities from Vaughan-Williams and Bach and from Sir Granville Bantock and Bach. I understand that Esa-Pekka Salonen has recorded a similar Bach-in-Big-Orchestra-Guise CD for Sony. Pearl once issued digital remasterings of Stoki's "go" at this stuff with the Philadelphia. It would be nice if that were still available. I hope that everyone comes to this table and digs in. Would you pass me some more brass, please?