Klarinet Archive - Posting 000165.txt from 1996/04

From: thehat@-----.ORG
Subj: Re: comments on Szell and
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 1996 20:56:50 -0500

In a message dated 04-06-96 INTERNET: leeson@-----.FH wrote to ** ALL **:
Il> >From the little experience I had with Marcellus, I got the sensation
Il> that he, like Szell, believed that intuition coupled with the
Il> experience of multiple performances of a work was sufficient to allow
Il> one to conclude on important performance issues. How many times have
Il> we all heard (and probably said), "Don't tell me how that piece goes,
Il> I've played it for 40 years." And I suggest that the act of playing
Il> a piece many times only provides one with an intimate knowledge of
Il> what the melodies are, nothing more.

Mr Marcellus also used to say, more or less "When you leave you can play
however you like but for now I want to share Mr. Szell's vision of the piece
with you." As you said, Szell was considered an outstanding interpreter of
Mozart in his time (and still is, for that matter) and Marcellus had enormous
respect for him. The interpretation was an honest attempt by two great
musicians and a great orchestra to convey the spritual and emotional content
of a great work. There was no willful disregard of the composer intended, and
there was no attempt to exploit the concerto for merely instrumental
brilliance at the expense of the serenity of the overall concept. Some may
find room for instrumental "party tricks" in this work, but you won't find
them on this recording.

Why not compare the Marcellus/Szell and any of Kell's recordings of the
Mozart? Kell's last precedes Marcellus's by only a few years. Which sounds
like an attempt to play in a dignified Mozart style as it was understood at
the (pre-Barenreiter) time?

David Hattner
clarinetist-at-large, NYC
-> Alice4Mac 2.4.4 E QWK Eval:04Feb96
Origin: Hat's Nut House