Klarinet Archive - Posting 000029.txt from 1995/11

From: R Adam Pease <R_Adam_Pease@-----.GOV>
Subj: more interpretation
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 12:26:33 -0500

I think I was too brief in my earlier post on interpretation. Dan has
raised a slightly different issue as well. Until recently I tended to
have one interpretation of a work which I felt was most valid for me
at that time. So any given month I would tend to play the Debussy
Rhapsody at the same tempo and the same choice of rubato in most sections.
The Brahms sonatas would have a tempo and character that just "felt right"
if I played them at any other tempo I would feel somehow uncomfortable.
The previous or subsequent months might be different and even a given
day might be different but by and large there was a "right" way to play
something.
I'm going to play the Stanford sonata next week. The middle movement
has a "fanatsia" section to start, then a sort of "pastoral" part which
then changes back to the fanatsia before changing again. I had been
playing the intro at about 58 and the pastoral at 72. After the second
fantasia section I had tried to keep the tempo even through the next
"closing" bar where there is a sequence of four repeated dotted quarter -
sixteenth note figures (hope this is clear, I don't have my part in front
of me). Now my pianist thinks that her part after the second fantasia is
"dumb" - it just some double struck chords so she would like me to move
that section which then requires (I think) that I pull the tempo back at
the "closing" bar so I'll be at around 58 again for the rest of the
movement. The point of all this is that I can feel the piece both ways.
Both interpetations are valid *for me* and this didn't used to happen.
Dan raises a related point about playing at piece the same way over years.
I agree, this sounds like musical death. If I play everything the same
way next year that would be an indication that I have stopped growing
musically. It's just that right now most works have a way that just
feels right to me.

Adam
pease@-----.gov