Klarinet Archive - Posting 000025.txt from 1994/11

From: Timothy Tikker <tjt@-----.ORG>
Subj: Re: Vibrato
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 15:33:54 -0500

On Fri, 28 Oct 1994, Josias Associates wrote:

> I cite the following passage about Richard Muhlfeld,
> the clarinetist who inspired Brahms' great chamber works. This quotation
> is from the book, "Clarinet," by Jack Brymer, which is one of the
> Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides:
>
> ".........A reminiscence of no less a player than Muhlfeld himself seems
> to suggest that the use of vibrato may have fallen out of fashion
> temporarily after his day, to return after about thirty years. Just
> before World War II a question was put to a very old viola player,
> sometime conductor of the Duke of Devonshire's Orchestra, about the
> playing of Muhlfeld. The old man had occasionally been called by Joachim
> to play in his quartet, and on several occasions had played the Brahms
> Quintet with the great Muhlfeld. Of the clarinetist's playing he was
> most enthusiastic, saying that three things mainly stuck in his memory.
> 'He used two clarinets, A and Bb, for the slow movement, to simplify the
> gypsy section; he had a fiery technique with a warm tone -- and a big
> vibrato.' Asked again by a startled questioner if he didn't mean to say
> 'rubato' the old man looked puzzled. 'No' he said, 'vibrato -- much more
> than Joachim, and as much as the cellist.'"

I once heard an historic recording of Joachim. His style used vibrato,
but only as an ornament, for long-held notes and such - not as a
constant. Even if Muhlfeld used it more than Joachim, it still may not
have been as much as a modern string player.