How do you feel about the first segment? I myself feel that Stokowsky's orchestration is too thick and garish; I have heard chamber orchestra and string orchestra versions that come across as more graceful and truer to JS Bach's original.
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)
'Music comes from within, from your heart, and from your soul'
I actually prefer the piece orchestrated, and it gave it a sense of menace that matched the animation perfectly. Maybe it is better with a string orchestra, but I thought it was well-performed, and it is one of my favourite segments, after Dance of the Hours and Night on Bare Mountain. (All Hail the mighty Chernabog!)
It's a common and quite reasonable complaint about Stokowski's transcriptions of Bach, but at the end of the day classical music is one artist's interpretation of another artist's work. I've often thought that Stokowski’s eccentric approach to Bach may have influenced Glen Gould in his 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations. In my opinion while some of the more modern recordings are truer to the composer’s original intentions and are generally to be preferred, the Stokowski transcriptions represent a bit of a guilty pleasure so I just enjoy them for what they are. Although part of me wonders just what would have been if Disney had worked on this with Reiner rather than Stokowski.
shareRegardless of anything else, I think it was designed by someone with sound to sight synaesthesia.
I have that (I hear music in colors and pictures) and that piece is exactly what some music looks like to me.......a colored oscilloscope.
Whoever designed it was seeing the same thing.
In my opinion, Bach's Toccata and Fugue ALWAYS sounds better when played on a big church organ....
Turn up the bass, dude!!
(One of my most favourite pieces of music, spanning the last 60 years.......)
^_^
The Opener of the Way is waiting....