Klarinet Archive - Posting 000058.txt from 1996/01

From: Donald Yungkurth <DYungkurth@-----.COM>
Subj: Kell Nostalgia
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 21:22:24 -0500

In response to my comments about the Reginald Kell reconding of Mozart K.
581, Dan Leeson wrote the following (in part):

>Reading Don's insightful comments on Kell caused a rush >of nostalgia,
particularly when he mentioned the >recording of K. 581. I had the same
album. Let's verify.

>Normally 78 rmp records were stored in sleeves. But this >set was mounted
in a box in a strange way. Each record >was placed on the single wooden
dowel that entered the >disk at the center hole. Somehow the disks never
touched >each other even though the 4 of them (that's eight sides >for the
Mozart quintet, 2 sides to a movement, repeats >were disallowed!!) were all
mounted on the spindle.

>Anyway, I had a record player whose claim to modernity >was that it had
electricity, but that's all. And then I put >on the quintet and heard Kell
play. I tried to play with >him using my Cundy Bettony edition and I could
not get in >tune. My part was for B-flat clarinet. I did not know one
>needed an A to play the piece. But the Cundy Bettony >edition was made for
B-flat clarinet with all the string >parts transposed to make it work. That
is the way I >thought it was. So I concluded that my record player was
>going to fast, I had to slow it down. It really didn't >matter what I did
because the machines wasn't running at >78 rmp in any case.

Dan said, "Let's verify", so I dug out the 78s, *my* Cundy-Bettoney edition
and the CD. First of all, my 78s have the same strange packaging Dan
mentions, except that mine makes use of a red plastic "dowel" rather than
wood. Probably cost cutting with the second pressing! The performance, by
the way is by Kell with the Philharmonia String Quartet. There is
essentially no documentation with the 78s, but the CD indicates the recording
was made in February, 1945.

My Cundy-Bettoney edition is interesting. They published a book containing
the clarinet parts for the Mozart, Weber and Brahms quintets. At the top of
the page for the Mozart it says, "Quintette No. 3", "Solo Clarinet in Bb or
A" and "W. A. Mozart". No K. 581 appears on this edition. For years I
wondered about those other two Mozart Clarinet Quintets! A second volume of
concertos included the Mozart K. 622, which they called, "Op. 107"!

I assume they published string parts in "A" or "Bb", but for all I know, they
may have had piano reductions. Since they call the clarinet part, "Solo",
who knows?

Don Yungkurth (DYungkurth@-----.com)