Klarinet Archive - Posting 000207.txt from 1996/03

From: "Daniel A. Paprocki" <dap@-----.US>
Subj: Re: Clarinet tone
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 13:44:03 -0500

Jim,
You brought up a good point. Some years ago when Dick came out
with his Brahms Sonata recording I thought it was ghastly - the tone,
vibrato, and his version of Brahms. At that time I was talking to an old
friend of mine, James Wirzbicki (music editor for the St. Louis
Globe-Democrate and a very good clarinetist, MM from Cinn Conservatory).
He felt that Stolzman's Brahms was eye opening and just fantastic
musically. At that time in my career, I was obsessed with dark tone like
that of Russ Dagon (my teacher at the time).
Fast forward 15 years. I now feel that Richard is a fine player in
his own right. I try to get past the different tone or vibrato and listen
to his musical ideas - some I like, some I don't - so what. I admire
Stolzman for what he has done in the clarinet world and that he does make a
living playing the clarinet.
We should be more tolerant of different tone, vibrato, and musical
ideas. Those things are the personality of the individual player and just
because their clarinet thoughts don't match ours doesn't mean they're
wrong.
It was interesting last year in Oklahoma to hear what people
thought of Gervase DePeyer's recital. His tone was quite different than
the accepted norm of players here. Here was a legend in the clarinet world
(or musical world for that matter) and other clarinetists were critiquing
his tone! Get a life! His technique was flawless, some of the pieces he
was playing were written for him, and his playing was musical - but his
tone! So What!! He's a great musician.

Flame On
Dan

>The discussion on tone vs. phrasing brings to mind a performance I
>heard in Buffalo several years ago. Richard Stoltzman played the
>Mozart Concerto w/the Buffalo Philharmonic. Several clarinetists in
>the audience criticized Stoltzman's vibrato, improvisation (although
>there was a minimal amount), and TONE. Non-clarinetist audience
>members I overheard commented on how expressive Stoltzman's playing
>was...
>
>James Perone, Assistant Professor of Music
>Mount Union College
>peroneje@-----.edu

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Daniel A. Paprocki
dap@-----.us

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