Klarinet Archive - Posting 000437.txt from 1997/11

From: "Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: Re: The Messiah
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 15:33:13 -0500

-----Original Message-----
From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Date: Monday, November 10, 1997 10:24 AM
Subject: The Messiah

>The Messiah
>
>The Toronto Symphony plays the Messiah every year and every year the
>audiences go to it religiously.
>It's a great work and has lasted and will last for generations.
>
>The version I loved playing at the Toronto Symphony was a version
>orchestrated by Mozart.
>Mozart orchestrated the Messiah for performance at regular concerts that
>took place at Baron Swieten's house. I loved that one. It had so much
>clarinet in it.
>

I've played this version also. It's very beautiful, and in places exciting.
But in this area at least it requires a special performance billed publicly
in advance, almost by way of a disclaimer, as employing Mozart's
"arrangement." Conductors here almost never program it because it is (as I
remember it) so far, at times, from the original style. Still, no one minds
Ravel's orchestration of "Pictures."

>Our conductor, Sir Ernest MacMillan wanted to keep to a more original
>version, so we played another version by Prout.
>
>But every year, Sir Ernest would tacit the clarinets in one or other
>number, leaving it almost as Handel had written it.
>
>It got so, that after three numbers at the beginning of the work, the
>clarinets were tacit until the intermission.
>
>That meant another 40 minutes of sitting and trying not to fall asleep.
>There was a large audience and with so many people there, the heat made
>one drowsy.
>
>I finally hit on a plan. I brought along sunglasses and after the
>playing third number, put them on and closed my eyes.
>At least I did not have to try and make it look as if I am wide awake.
>
I've been in similar situations. How did you ensure you wouldn't fall out of
the chair or, heaven forbid, begin snoring? ;-)

Karl