Such a beautiful orchestration ... nearly brought me to tears first time I happened upon it in an elgar full works collection I picked up for about £20! Bach would be proud ... I personally think it's a lot more accessible (and just generally better) than the original organ version
The only comment I want to say is that this was and interpretation of Bach in Elgar's time, tastes change throughout time. You can see endless XIX century edition of Bach's music and it would have indications that he never would have jotted down... Nevertheless, in Elgar's defense, I can say that even J.S. Bach re-arranged his own pieces, or pieces by other composers, so I wouldn't think that he would object to Elgar's orchestration.
If you want to hear "pure Bach" (as I usually do) there are are many recording with original instruments, or in the case of this particular piece, you can hear the original organ version. But if you want sheer excitement, at a live concert particularly, this cannot be beat. Imagine the CSO or the RCO doing this and you being in the first row. You'd never forget it. I cannot believe some of the comments some of you have made.
As I said below I don't know what's going on, but I'd better nail my colours to the mast. I am an Elgar fan. He was capable of the tenderest music possible, and handled the most erudite intricacies of his art with consummate skill (eg. Introduction and Allegro) .I do think that sometimes he did lapse into unfortunate bombastic vulgarity, but the world of music would be much poorer without his work.
I think Elgar's triumph here is in the Fantasia while Bach's was for both parts.The transcription gets unnecessarily bombastic in the fugue with the treatment from the trombones, percussion etc. I am always , however , on the point of tears at those weeping, descending figures from the strings in Elgar's vision of the Fantasia. Beautiful video - the slow opening tempo milks the last drop of sentiment from it and at times it actually sounds like pure Elgar.
@georgfly I don't know what's going on but I was very surprised to see your comment marked as spam. As far as I can tell , I was saying I like half of it and you were saying you don't like any of it, which is fair enough to me. If we are only supposed to like everything and not allowed to speak up we will end up with totalitarian aesthetics, which Hitler, Stalin, and even Saddam Hussein ignorantly proved not to really amount to much. If this comment is removed too, I'll know who to side with.
i think that Bach would have done the same thing if he lived in XX century
Erikk91 8 months ago
Such a beautiful orchestration ... nearly brought me to tears first time I happened upon it in an elgar full works collection I picked up for about £20! Bach would be proud ... I personally think it's a lot more accessible (and just generally better) than the original organ version
bareMANLEY 9 months ago
The only comment I want to say is that this was and interpretation of Bach in Elgar's time, tastes change throughout time. You can see endless XIX century edition of Bach's music and it would have indications that he never would have jotted down... Nevertheless, in Elgar's defense, I can say that even J.S. Bach re-arranged his own pieces, or pieces by other composers, so I wouldn't think that he would object to Elgar's orchestration.
kentan1985 1 year ago
If you want to hear "pure Bach" (as I usually do) there are are many recording with original instruments, or in the case of this particular piece, you can hear the original organ version. But if you want sheer excitement, at a live concert particularly, this cannot be beat. Imagine the CSO or the RCO doing this and you being in the first row. You'd never forget it. I cannot believe some of the comments some of you have made.
moosatious 1 year ago
As I said below I don't know what's going on, but I'd better nail my colours to the mast. I am an Elgar fan. He was capable of the tenderest music possible, and handled the most erudite intricacies of his art with consummate skill (eg. Introduction and Allegro) .I do think that sometimes he did lapse into unfortunate bombastic vulgarity, but the world of music would be much poorer without his work.
alipitogen 1 year ago
@alipitogen
sure, also i should say that in my comment i only wanted to refer to the fugue.
georgfly 1 year ago
Heart-breaking.
oboistru 1 year ago
I think Elgar's triumph here is in the Fantasia while Bach's was for both parts.The transcription gets unnecessarily bombastic in the fugue with the treatment from the trombones, percussion etc. I am always , however , on the point of tears at those weeping, descending figures from the strings in Elgar's vision of the Fantasia. Beautiful video - the slow opening tempo milks the last drop of sentiment from it and at times it actually sounds like pure Elgar.
alipitogen 1 year ago
Comment removed
georgfly 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@alipitogen
agreed. the very end is almost like the finale of a bombastic hungarian rhapsody...
anyway - doesnt work for me.
georgfly 1 year ago
@georgfly I don't know what's going on but I was very surprised to see your comment marked as spam. As far as I can tell , I was saying I like half of it and you were saying you don't like any of it, which is fair enough to me. If we are only supposed to like everything and not allowed to speak up we will end up with totalitarian aesthetics, which Hitler, Stalin, and even Saddam Hussein ignorantly proved not to really amount to much. If this comment is removed too, I'll know who to side with.
alipitogen 1 year ago
Quite a good performance of a terrific transcription. Thanks for the upload.
micheldvorsky 2 years ago