Chamber Orchestra

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
String quartet in fa minor op. 95
Version for string orchestra by Gustav Mahler

The "Quartetto serioso" is an intimate and exceedingly compressed work that Beethoven did not want performed in public: "never to be performed in public" he wrote to Sir George Smart in 1816.   
Gustav Mahler set about adapting the Quartet op. 95 for string orchestra in 1898, but already suspected the harsh criticism and wrote in the Viennese weekly "Die Waage": "A quartet for string orchestra! That sounds strange to you. (...) What I intend is only an ideal representation of the quartet. (...) I give you this power by amplifying the voices. I release the expansion that lies dormant in the voices, and give the notes wings."

String quartet in c sharp minor op. 131
Version for string orchestra
The seven movements of the C-sharp minor quartet are the result of over 600 pages of sketches. The seven movements bridge the gap from a serious fugue to an ecstatic finale, which Richard Wagner described with the words: "This is the dance of the world itself". 

Chamber orchestra of Karlsruhe University of Music
directed by Prof. Nachum Erlich