Klarinet Archive - Posting 000347.txt from 1996/11

From: simon aldrich <simona@-----.ORG>
Subj: best clarinetist debate
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1996 13:16:50 -0500

Over in the rec.music.classical newsgroup music aficionados have been
debating the best clarinetist and tangentially the best clarinet school
(usually British versus American). Here is a sampling of the comments that
were on the newsgroup this morning (Saturday).

>> I missed the beginning of this clarinet discussion, so that I don't know
>> whether you're talking of contemporary players or all-time-ers. If it's
>> the latter, you'd better include Benny Goodman and Reginald Kell, or
>> your list is simply a bunch of guys named ???

>Yeah...I have a recording of Goodman squeaking his way through the
>Nielsen Concerto. The funniest thing I've heard in a long time. I
>could not live without this now that I have it. Great party record.
>Benny was a very fine player and a sensitive musician in all
>styles...jazz, swing, classical, etc... However, his technique was not
>suited to the classical style. His utilization of very soft reeds gave
>him a rather reedy tone that oftens produced blips or mini-squeaks when
>slurring in the middle and high registers. Most of the time, I listen
>through this and can appreciate the music from within, but quite often,
>it gets in the way. For most solo repertoire, tend to prefer those
>players with warmer tones, ie. American or German players. However, in
>an orchestral setting, I tend to like a larger variety of colors (I
>often love the piquant w.w. sound of British, West and East European,
>and even Russian orchestras). Goodman was good (I am sorry to say I've
>never heard Kell's playing), but his forte was swing. I also don't
>really care for Hilton, King, or de Peyer either. I like Marcellus,
>Wright, Manasse, Shifrin, Neidich, McClellan, Vare, Drucker, Gigliotti,
>Combs, Meyer, Leister, and even Ottensamer. Hey,...we all have our
>'druthers.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (my censoring S.)
>"The President's Own"
>United States Marine Band

>> The greatest clarinet players?

>As a kid, I lived in Cleveland during Marcellus' tenure under Szell. Among
>others, I heard him play Premiere Rhapsodie, Miraculous Mandarin,
>Firebird, all Brahms and Beethoven Symphonies, Sherehazade, Hary Janos,
>and even a chamber performance (with Benita Valente?) of Der Hirt auf dem
>Felsen. I heard him, Lynn Harrel and Babin play the Brahms trio. I heard
>him play the Mozart under Szell. In all my travels, I have never heard a
>clarinettist approach his beauty of tone, facility, and musicianship. He
>passed away recently.

>Robert Finn, music critic for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, described his
>tone as a dark, warm globe of oil with a candle in the middle....

PS This is not a surreptitious plug for a former teacher or a veiled
anti-Goodman
shot so put the flamethrowers away. I saw them posted and thought
Klarineters would like to follow the thread themselves at
rec.music.classical Simon (simona@-----.org)