Klarinet Archive - Posting 000666.txt from 1995/05

From: niethamer@-----.BITNET
Subj: Re: Goodman clarinet concerti
Date: Tue, 23 May 1995 23:33:15 -0400

On Mon, 22 May 1995, Conrad Josias wrote:

> In preparing for a recent chamber-music recital, I had occasion
> to write the program notes for the Poulenc "Sonata for Clarinet and
> Piano." I knew the work had been written in memory of Poulenc's dear
> friend, Arthur Honeggger, and was also reported to have been dedicated to
> Sergei Prokofieff (musical compositions often have separate memorials
> and dedications). But, in reading further through my source material,
> I was reminded that the Sonata had been commissioned in 1962 by Goodman.
>
> The material available to me presented conflicting and sometimes
> unclear accounts of the early history of the composition. The first
> edition of the music was published posthumously. According to one account,
> the composition was first heard (premiered?) in New York in April of 1963
> with Goodman on clarinet and Leonard Bernstein at the piano. Another
> report states merely that the work was premiered at a memorial concert
> for Poulenc himself. (Could both accounts have been referring to the
> same performance?)

I'm sorry I'll be flying "blind" here, but I appear to have loaned some
of my Poulenc documantation to a student to write *her* program notes, so
I don't even have it in the house.

Regarding the dedication of the Poulenc Clarinet Sonata: It was written
at the same time as the oboe sonata, which is in fact dedicated to
Prokofiev in the published edition. However, on one of the original
recordings ( on Nonesuch, Lancelot, I believe) the annotator *reverses*
these dedications, which makes a certain amount of sense if you consider
that 1.) Honneger was an oboist, and 2.) the last mvt of the clarinet
sonata has that same motor rhythm for which Prokofiev was so famous.

Does anyone on this list have any substantive info about the reversal of
these dedications? Also, any useful info about the succesion of editions
to the present, complete with the accuracy of changed notes in the
clarinet part, and the editing of the dynamics from the original
published edition?

David Niethamer