Beethoven orchestration

I always detested the sound of Beethoven's orchestral works (with a few
exceptions here and there) until I heard the Norrington (i.e. WELL-PLAYED
original instruments recordings). Once I heard those pices played on
rich warm gut strings, and with the beautiful recorder-ish flutes, somehow
all of the "stacking" orchestration of chords in the winds and so on
that sounded so harsh in modern insrument renditions, sounded much
lovelier on originals.

I'm sure someone will send a POed reply about the bogusness of authentic
instrument movement, etc. etc., so let me state now: my opinion is not
based on any claims to authenticity, or scholarship, or any of that,
simply on the fact that it sounds much better. . . to my ears anyway.

>I always detested the sound of Beethoven's orchestral works (with
>a few exceptions here and there) until I heard the Norrington (i.e.
>WELL-PLAYED original instruments recordings). Once I heard those
>pices played on rich warm gut strings, and with the beautiful
>recorder-ish flutes, somehow all of the "stacking" orchestration of
>chords in the winds and so on that sounded so harsh in modern
>insrument renditions, sounded much lovelier on originals.

Thanks for the tip! I'll check it out!

>I'm sure someone will send a POed reply about the bogusness of
>authentic instrument movement, etc. etc., so let me state now:
>my opinion is not based on any claims to authenticity, or
>scholarship, or any of that, simply on the fact that it sounds
>much better. . . to my ears anyway.

I don't even know about the bogusness of the authentic instruments
movement. I don't know about gut strings, and antique strings
have always been the rage, but the _size_ of the orchestra, and
the _brass_ are hugely different today than they were in Beethoven's
orchestra.

-Carl

In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.44.0202041840280.6202-100000@...>
Christopher Bailey wrote:

> I always detested the sound of Beethoven's orchestral works (with a few
> exceptions here and there) until I heard the Norrington (i.e.
> WELL-PLAYED
> original instruments recordings). Once I heard those pices played on
> rich warm gut strings, and with the beautiful recorder-ish flutes,
> somehow
> all of the "stacking" orchestration of chords in the winds and so on
> that sounded so harsh in modern insrument renditions, sounded much
> lovelier on originals.

I also heard some of Schubert's Unfinished on the radio, contrasting
modern and original instruments. It made a tremendous difference to the
sound, so I hope those commenting negatively did the full research ...

Fortunately, Stalling and Stravinsky left supervised recordings, so their
genius is unquestionable!

Graham

>Fortunately, Stalling and Stravinsky left supervised recordings,
>so their genius is unquestionable!

Glad you reminded us about Stalling, Graham!

-Carl

--- In metatuning@y..., "clumma" <carl@l...> wrote:

/metatuning/topicId_1628.html#1668

> >Fortunately, Stalling and Stravinsky left supervised recordings,
> >so their genius is unquestionable!
>
> Glad you reminded us about Stalling, Graham!
>
> -Carl

***I hate to reveal my ignorance, but I don't even know
who "Stalling" is... Who is he again??

JP

clumma wrote:

> Glad you reminded us about Stalling, Graham!

I've now got the feeling he didn't actually do the arrangements. But he
must have put a lot of indications in the score as to what instruments he
intended.

jpehrson2 wrote:

> ***I hate to reveal my ignorance, but I don't even know
> who "Stalling" is... Who is he again??

C'mon, pioneer of the click track, probably the first to person to put an
electric guitar in with an orchestra ...

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/stallingc.shtml>

Graham

> ***I hate to reveal my ignorance, but I don't even know
> who "Stalling" is... Who is he again??

That waskewy wabbit Carl Stalling, of course!

-Carl

--- In metatuning@y..., graham@m... wrote:

/metatuning/topicId_1628.html#1680

> jpehrson2 wrote:
>
>
> > ***I hate to reveal my ignorance, but I don't even know
> > who "Stalling" is... Who is he again??
>
> C'mon, pioneer of the click track, probably the first to person to
put an
> electric guitar in with an orchestra ...
>
> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/stallingc.shtml>
>
>
> Graham

****Puddy tat? Well, at least I've heard of John Zorn! :)

JP