Best brass band arrangement/transcription of orchestral work

[Dave Payn]

Maybe a bit of a pointless exercise (a phrase Carlisle United fans will be familiar with....) but purely out of curiosity, I was wondering what the forum consider their favourite, and/or most effective band transcriptions of orchestral pieces. I don't have a particular favourite that stands out, but there are a number I could mention:

In no particular order of merit:

The Sorceror's Apprentice (Dukas arr. Bourgeois)
The Pines of Rome - complete (Respighi arr. Snell)
Four Dances from Checkmate (Bliss arr. Ball)
Four Dances from the Nutcracker Suite (Tchaikovsky arr. Sparke)
Variations on a Theme of Haydn (Brahms arr. Nash)

 

[aimee_euph]

i think Firebird by Stravinsky has been done well, can't remember who arranged it but it's good, and Elsa's Procession to the Minster is also very good.

 

[Dave Payn]

i think Firebird by Stravinsky has been done well, can't remember who arranged it but it's good, and Elsa's Procession to the Minster is also very good.

Firebird - Ray Farr, I believe.

 

[aimee_euph]

i think Firebird by Stravinsky has been done well, can't remember who arranged it but it's good, and Elsa's Procession to the Minster is also very good.

Firebird - Ray Farr, I believe.

could be, i was too bothered about crmaming all the notes in in the right place to see who arranged it!!

 

[Keppler]

correct.. it is Ray Farr and there's a lot of cramming!


that coronation theme from one of Borodin's is quite good too..
(in his usual vague way of missing details.. )

 

[The Cornet King]

There is a cracking arrangement of Shostakovich's Festive Overture out there by Peter Kitson.

Crown Imperial also works well, by Framk Wright.

There are so many good ones its hard to pick a favourite.

 

[PeterBale]

that coronation theme from one of Borodin's is quite good too..
(in his usual vague way of missing details.. )

Boris Godinov for me, anyway (arr Littlemore) - very good transcription.
Daphnis & Chloe - Howard Snell
Bacchanale from Samson & Delilah - Ray Farr

 

[Keppler]

Oh and Snell's Procession to the Minister.

 

[The King of Wise]

Le Roi d'Ys - Lalo arr. Frank Wright.

Other classics include:-

Le Carnaval Romain - Berlioz arr. Frank Wright
Daphnis & Chloe - Ravel arr. Howard Snell
The Planets - Holst arr. Stephen Roberts

Lalo

 

[Razor]

Peter

I remember playing an arrangement of the bacchanale but I'm sure it was arranged by Dr Keith Wilkinson.

Reason I remember is that it was played in programme given at a local SA corps and the conductor went into great detail about the background to the piece - apparently a bacchanale was a sort of orgy!!

Ray Collins

 

[PeterBale]

There are a couple around, I think. The one I've got was recorded by Imps under Ray, and I assumed it was his - I'll check tonight :lol:

Edit: I've just checked the listing on Midland-cd-club and they credit the arrangement to "A. Walker" - anyway, it's a good 'un :lol:

 

[johnflugel]

At Rothwell, we have just recorded onto CD (it's out next week) a very rare arrangement by Michael Antrobus of the Allegro from Shostakovich 10th Symphony. Terrific transcription: if you want to hear it, email me and I can get you copy.

Also, does Sandy Smith's arrangement of 'Stingray' count?! :lol: That is a top arrangement

John

 

[Ben Williamson]

i think the best arrangers of orchestral pieces are howard snell and frank wright.

my favourite pieces are snell: Pines of rome and procession to the minster
wright (frank):Force of destiny (a monster piece!) and Roman Carnival Overture.

however Rimmer's arrangement of Hungarian Rhapsody 2 is also a fantastic piece!

but the there is also 1812 overture, but i cant think who did this magnificant arrangement, but best played without cannon fire! :shock:

i could go on and on and on there are so many!

Ben x

 

[WhatSharp?]

Pictures at an exhibition - Snell (as on the CD of the same name), I don't think its been officially released as a score (not suprised it half an hour long!, long past your average brass band concert goers attention span! ), however I still think its superb, I actually prefer it to the Orchestral recording I have of it, it seems to have a lot more depth and Great Gates of Kiev just knocks spots of the cat-scratcher/tree-blowers version

 

[PeterBale]

Pictures at an exhibition - Snell (as on the CD of the same name), I don't think its been officially released as a score (not suprised it half an hour long!, long past your average brass band concert goers attention span! ), however I still think its superb, I actually prefer it to the Orchestral recording I have of it, it seems to have a lot more depth and Great Gates of Kiev just knocks spots of the cat-scratcher/tree-blowers version

If I'm correct, it isn't a Howard Snell arrangement but Elgar Howarth's band version of the transcription he did for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble - that's another good recording, if you can ever get hold of it (I think it's recently been re-released on cd with some other bits and pieces).

 

[WhatSharp?]

Pictures at an exhibition - Snell (as on the CD of the same name), I don't think its been officially released as a score (not suprised it half an hour long!, long past your average brass band concert goers attention span! ), however I still think its superb, I actually prefer it to the Orchestral recording I have of it, it seems to have a lot more depth and Great Gates of Kiev just knocks spots of the cat-scratcher/tree-blowers version

If I'm correct, it isn't a Howard Snell arrangement but Elgar Howarth's band version of the transcription he did for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble - that's another good recording, if you can ever get hold of it (I think it's recently been re-released on cd with some other bits and pieces).

Are we still playing Mornington Crescent?

Don't know is the answer.. perhaps someone can enlighten us.
BTW The Sop is superb (someone said it was David King)

 

[neiltwist]

Pictures at an exhibition - Snell (as on the CD of the same name), I don't think its been officially released as a score (not suprised it half an hour long!, long past your average brass band concert goers attention span! ), however I still think its superb, I actually prefer it to the Orchestral recording I have of it, it seems to have a lot more depth and Great Gates of Kiev just knocks spots of the cat-scratcher/tree-blowers version

If I'm correct, it isn't a Howard Snell arrangement but Elgar Howarth's band version of the transcription he did for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble - that's another good recording, if you can ever get hold of it (I think it's recently been re-released on cd with some other bits and pieces).

Are we still playing Mornington Crescent?

Don't know is the answer.. perhaps someone can enlighten us.
BTW The Sop is superb (someone said it was David King)

I know that elgar howarth arranged it for Phillip Jones Brass Ensemble, but I'm not sure if that's the same CD as the one mentioned above!

Phillip Jones Greatest Hits is the recently released one, I say buy it, it's amazing. They almost play borage as well as I do! :wink:

 

[Straightmute]

Fodens recoreded Pictures... in their Britannia days. Arranger: Elgar Howarth, conductor: Howard Snell.

D

 

[Dave Payn]

The Howard Snell/BBS recording of Pictures is indeed, Elgar Howarth's arrangement. And yes, the PJBE's recording of Pictures is on a compilation entitled (highly original this...) Philip Jones Brass Ensemble Greatest Hits, though I believe it's only purchaseable via the Internet.

Yours

Ann O'Rak (Ms)

 

[Aidan Geary]

What about 'The Enigma Variations'?!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously though - Eric Ball did a great transcription of the Overture to Elgar's 'The Dream of Gerontius'.

There's also Boelmann's 'Suite Gothique' which works well if you have a monster bass section.