Klarinet Archive - Posting 000544.txt from 1995/09

From: niethamer@-----.BITNET
Subj: Re: Neidich and the Mozart concerto performance
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 23:40:20 -0400

Dan Leeson wrote:

> what did you think of the Neidich performance of the Mozart concerto?

On balance I liked it. I felt like the orchestral playing by Orpheus was
as elegant and expressive as any I've heard of this concerto, and it gave
me some ideas for my own performances of this work.

I'm hot and cold about Neidich's ornamentation. I like the idea of
ornamentation, but I feel that Neidich's is not always appropriate to the
music. In general, I found some of the ornamentation to be too much in
the pure virtuoso mold - virtuosity for its own sake, as opposed to
weaving virtuoso ornaments into the weave of the music as Mozart notated
it. At specific moments, I questioned the use of ornaments - why, for
instance, in the exposition of the first mvt, but not in the parallel
place in the recap?

Having said all that, I borrowed a few of these ornaments for
performances of my own the last time I performed the concerto in 1991.
I found Neidich's sound to be much more "mainstream" than in live
performances I've heard him play, much more "in control".
And as I said, I enjoyed the performance as a whole very much, because it
gave so much to consider.

Another recording I enjoy is Anthony Pay/Academy of Ancient Music. I like
the ornamentation (some of which I also borrowed), and the sound of the
period instrument gives another perspective on the coloring of the sound
that we miss with our grenadilla clarinets and our "beat the string band"
orchestral blockbuster sounds.

I think DePeyer's recording (London Sym/Peter Maag?) in its third mvt.
gives as good a feeling of dance as any recording of the concerto that I've
ever heard. And, while confessing to borrowing, Alfred Prinz/Vienna/Bohm
showed me a phrasing/dynamics scheme for a first movement phrase (mm
85-87) that never seems to wear out.

> if we clarinetists hear
> a performance of a work for solo clarinet and anything, we should be
> articulate and observant enough to say exactly what it was we found
> satisfying and what it was that disappointed us. If all that comes out
> of our mouths consists of platitudes about "it was a nice performance
> and s/he played very well," then we do a disservice to ourselves, our
> repertoire, and our duty to report on how that repertoire should be
> executed.

Hear, hear!!

Now, Dan, can you enlighten us about the controversial aspects of the
ornamentation in Neidich's recording? For me, the issue isn't whether to do
so - it's how,
and where, and whether it's "really what Mozart would have wanted"(!!)

David Niethamer