Klarinet Archive - Posting 000470.txt from 1995/11

From: Gene Keyes <gene@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: Beethoven Wind Sextett as WWQuint / Neidich
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 18:28:04 -0500

>Hi............There are at least two published versions of the reduction of
the Op.71 in Eb.. One is published by Theodore Presser and the arranger is
listed as the Philadelphia WW Quintet. The other is in a colection of 22 WW
Quintets published by Southern Music Co. and Edited by Albert Andraud. No
credit is given for the arrangement in the Andraud Collection...Hope this
helps/gk

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
>
>
Gene Keyes
gene@-----.net