Klarinet Archive - Posting 000465.txt from 1995/11

From: Jacqueline G Eastwood <eastwooj@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Beethoven Wind Sextett as WWQuint / Neidich
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 17:06:30 -0500

Hi, Martin,

There is indeed a published arrangement of the Beethoven Sextett as a
woodwind quintet! Unfortunately, I cannot remember the publisher or
whether the name of the arranger was mentioned on the music. Back in the
Dark Ages when I was in high school, I remember having played this
piece. My memory was jogged when I did the original Sextett sometime
last year (Gee, this really sounds familiar!), but I much preferred the
1st clarinet part of the Sextett to the clarinet part in the quintet
version (flutes and oboes get to have fun all the time -- this is MY
turn!). Try a really common publisher like Carl Fischer or
Belwin-Mills. I'm pretty certain it was a (relatively) modern-day guy
who arranged it -- not Beethoven.

Jacqueline Eastwood
University of Arizona/Arizona Opera Orchestra
eastwooj@-----.edu

On Tue, 28 Nov 1995, Martin Pergler wrote:

> Hello all...
>
> getting home from rehearsal last night, I turned on the radio and
> heard Beethoven's Eb Sextett Op71 for 2Cl,2Hn,2Bn...being played by a
> wind quintet. For I while, I thought I was just having delusions
> (an evening of trumpets blaring Tchaikovskij and Shostakovitch in
> my ears made this seem a reasonable supposition) but the announcer
> labelled listed it afterwards as "a completion of B's Quintet in
> Eb, Op. 71, played by the Belgian Wind Quintet". Does anyone know
> the story behind this?
>
> I have a recording of the Sextett by Neidich and Mozzafiato (The Beehoven
> Wind Music Disc on Sony). The notes there mention the Sextett as being
> written in 1796, but "probably not played until 1805" and published by
> Breitkopf and Hartel in 1810. No word about other instrumentations. The
> quintet version seemed, as far as I could tell for I don't know the work
> that well, just a reinstrumentation (incidentally with the cl keeping most
> of the solistic licks of cl 1 in the sextett).
>
> Anyway, periodically people on this list mention liking or disliking
> cerain features of Neidich's playing. Invariably someone comes back and
> says "be specific". This seems like a good opportunity for me to try to
> be specific in one instance, in the hopes that it will provoke discussion.
>
> In preface, let me say that unlike some members of this board, I don't know
> Mr. Neidich (I am only a math grad student who happens to play clarinet for
> fun). In general, I greatly admire his playing and musicianship.
>
> The first movement of the Sextett is an adagio-allegro. The adagio ends
> on a big held chord, and 1st clar leads off the allegro with a solo
> staccato melody. After the others join in, 1st clar has a few solistic
> fast roulades (two types, each repeated). Two features about Neidich's
> interpretation: 1) between the chord ending the adagio and starting off
> the allegro, he puts in a cl cadenza, arpeggiating down and then
> meandering up. This doesn't appear in the parts in the edition I have
> seen. 2) some of the roulades are tongued at hyper fast speeds. The parts
> I have seen are written slurred (this may be editorial).
>
> I rather like 2). These are passages meant to be virtuosic, and he is
> capable of adding this extra twist. Tongueing some and slurring some adds
> variety in the same way that I am familiar from, say, baroque sonatas
> (which I play a lot on recorder). I'm not that thrilled with 1). To me,
> the adagio has a natural ensemble texture, linked with its slow meter.
> Beethoven already contrasts this with the solo staccato melody of the clar
> starting the allegro, which already resolves the rhythmic and harmonic
> tension. A cadenza at his point seems to disrupt this resolution.
> Personally, I would be happy with no extra ornamenation at this point,
> though a short little ornament or arpeggio alone might be nice too. I
> would also be happy with the cadenza if the structure of the piece was
> similar before and after the point in question.
>
> Comments? I repeat that my hope is to try to start a discussion from which
> I and perhaps others can learn something, not to start a Klarinet
> "Commission of Inquiry" into Sony recording #(whatever).
>
> Martin
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Martin Pergler pergler@-----.edu
> Grad student, Mathematics http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~pergler
> Univ. of Chicago
>

   
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