Klarinet Archive - Posting 000338.txt from 1997/06

From: Gary Young <gyoung@-----.com>
Subj: RE: Mozart, K. 622: Oh No!! Not again...
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 11:53:46 -0400

Am I reading you wrong, Craig and Dan? What I think I'm reading is this:

1. A performance (i.e. any performance) of K622 without improvisation is
boring (Craig seems to say this) or at least lacks "true beauty" (Dan's
words). In other words,

2. What is REQUIRED to keep a performance of K622 from being boring, or to
give it "true beauty," is tasteful and appropriate improvisation.

Well, there's lots to Mozart besides improvisation, namely everything he
WROTE: there are small-scale and long-range harmonic and rhythmic patterns,
beautiful and expressive melodic lines, very satisfying orchestration, and
canonic devices and counterpoint, which together combine to give often
miraculous music, however devoid of improvisation. (It is interesting that
the interpretation of these qualities of Mozart's clarinet works is rarely
discussed on this list, at least as far as I'm aware. Yet there are, I
think, very difficult issues of interpretation in these works, entirely
apart from issues of improvisation.)

Anyone who does not appreciate these non-improvisatory aspects of Mozart's
music is clueless. Anyone who is bored by them, simply because they are
not accompanied by improvisation, is clueless.

Now I've read enough of what Dan has written, on this list and elsewhere,
to know that he is anything but clueless and has great insight into these
other qualities of Mozart's music; I've learned a great deal from him. And
Craig's postings make it clear he is not clueless either. So I think that
either I'm misreading them, or they have engaged in hyperbole to drive a
point home (I think the latter).

I certainly agree that improvisation, done by someone who knows how, can
enhance K622 or Mozart's other works (Query: does it really add much to the
outer movements of K622?). More than that: Improvisation can REALLY
enhance some of them -- I've heard Robert D. Levin work his extraordinary
magic on Mozart's piano works. But the idea that without improvisation
Mozart's works are boring or lack true beauty is just one step (if that)
away from the view that WITHOUT IMPROVISATION THEY ARE NOT WORTH PLAYING OR
LISTENING TO.

Is that really the position of Dan or Craig? Their language, at least,
suggests it is: Dan says Robin's view that improvisation is NOT NECESSARY
(i.e. not necessary to a performance) "is opinion based, to a great extent,
on personal prejudice and lack of information about music of this period."
I don't think this is a question of ignorance of history: We can know all
the relevant history, which Dan has done so much to educate us about, and
STILL conclude that without improvisation Mozart's works are still worth
playing, even extraordinary, even miraculous -- that's an aesthetic
judgment, not an historical judgment. If it is a prejudiced aesthetic
judgment, then I share Robin's prejudice. But where's the prejudice?

Gary Young
Madison, Wisconsin

P.S. I note that Robin put 'cadenzas' in quotes -- maybe Robin meant to
convey that these are not really cadenzas, just that they are often called
cadenzas.

----------
From: Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu]
Subject: Re: Mozart, K. 622: Oh No!! Not again...

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.29
> Subj: Re: Mozart, K. 622: Oh No!! Not again...

> Craig E. Countryman wrote:
>
> > Well, I just had to comment that after our fruitful discussion that I
> > heard Mozart's Clarinet Concerto on Public Radio tonight. I must admit
> > that while to had the regular beauty of any Mozart piece it was a
little
> > boring. [...]
>
> By chance the other night, I stumbled upon a performance (from disc)
> that I'd not heard before. It had very little ornamentation, and the
> `cadenzas' (at the pause points) came to very little.

Robin, there are no cadenzas in K. 622 and the fact that you
refer to them as such (as do most clarinet players - this is not
a slam at you) shows how much of what was required of 18th
century clarinet players has come down to the 20th century.

Those pause points that you refer to are a specific request for a
performer to do a specific thing. And if one does not know how
these pause points are identified or what it is that one is
supposed to do at those points, the performance becomes less and
less attuned to music of late 1700.

>
> I found it revelatory.
>
> > I think the reason many people avoid it is because it does take effort,
> > and extra study of his other various works. However, the time is well
> > worth it to breath new life into his music. Certainly it is beautiful
> > music, but its true beauty is only shown when it is played as it should
> > be: with spontaneous improvisation in EVERY performance.
>
> And I think that one can get a very long way playing Mozart's
> (supposed) notes as they appear on the page. In the right hands,
> ornamentation, improvisation and whatever can be great. But they're
> *not* *necessary*.
>
This is opinion based, to a great extent, on personal prejudice
and lack of information about music of this period. It does not
necessarily represent fact.

> We're listening to interpretations of a classic. When performed in a
> less-than-inspired way (whether by a poor performer, or by a good one
> on an off day), we can come away feeling let down, or even bored.

True, but the boredom can also come from the inherent repetitious
nature of classical form in unornamented fashion.

>
> But, listen to that classic performed by a great performer on the top
> of his/her form, and I come away walking on air. In whatever
> tradition that performer plays...
>
> Robin Fairbairns

How do you know that you might not walk away on even softer air
if you heard a well-crafted but ornamented version of the same work?

=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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