Klarinet Archive - Posting 000078.txt from 1994/07

From: Josias Associates <josassoc@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Brahms "Concerto"???
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 16:02:14 -0400

On Friday, 8 July 1994, James Langdell wrote:

> I was browsing in the Stanford University music library
> yesterday on a lunch break from a historic dance workshop.
> I noticed in a section of scores of clarinet concertos
> a spine that read "Opus 120 No. 1". I at first assumed
> it was be a misshelved copy of that deservedly familiar
> sonata, so I pulled it out. It turned out to be an
> orchestral score of an arrangement of the Brahms sonata
> done by Luciano Berio a few years ago!
>
> Has anyone heard this arrangement?

Mr. Langdell,

Shortly after its completion, I heard the Berio orchestral version
of what I recall was Brahms' Opus 20, No. 2 (the Eb major work) performed by
Michelle Zukovsky and the LA Phil. (Since you reported No. 1, I wonder if
it is possible that he transcribed both sonatas -- or do I have a faulty
memory?)

What I do remember for sure was that I loved the new setting so much
that I vowed to perform it with an orchestra if I got the chance.

Some of the music critics weren't so kind, though, and gave it
the thumbs-down treatment one might expect from purists -- the kind of
evaluation that Schoenberg's orchestral arrangement of the Brahms Piano
Quartet (The Hungarian) still gets from some people today.

As an engineering consultant to Stanford University, I'm pleased
to know that the work is in their music library. Could you tell me more,
such as who the publisher is and whether Berio orchestrated both sonatas.

Conrad (Connie) Josias
La Canada, California
josassoc@-----.com