Brahms: Sinfonia In B

Piano International (Nov, 2012)
There are respectable precedents for orchestrating chamber music. This year’s Proms featured George Szell’s orchestration of Smetana’s first string quartet; Schoenberg’s orchestration of the Brahms G minor Piano Quartet is now legendary; Yan Pascal Tortelier has orchestrated Ravel’s Piano Trio, and any number of duos with piano have been scored post hoc, either by the composers themselves (e.g. Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi) or colleagues (e.g. Poulenc/ Berkeley Flute Sonata). Brahms himself, of course, scored his two-piano St Anthony Variations for full orchestra.

In orchestrating Brahms’s first piano trio, Joseph Swensen’s intention has been to make a neglected piece better known. His immense labours in producing a 47-minute ‘symphony’ must …
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