Klarinet Archive - Posting 000552.txt from 1997/12

From: "John Gates" <cadenza@-----.com>
Subj: More on Gervase
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 19:42:25 -0500

I realize that the recent thread on Gervase de Peyer is probably a couple of
weeks old by now but I have not had an easy time getting this on the
klarinet BBS. I think I finally have it, (the listserve), figured out and
hope that those of you who were in one way or another touched by Gervase's
playing will enjoy this.

Today (12/5) I spent nearly an hour and read all the recent comments on
Gervase de Peyer. Thanks for Mark's database!!! I think that with the
exception of a very few (Nancy Sulfridge, Jim and Dan P) none of the
commentaries have looked at the whole picture of what he has brought to
performance.

First of all his rhythm is compelling; I don't mean necessarily
metronomic but the type that makes for very exciting playing. Heifetz had
that same sort of quality. Secondly he has/had a wonderful sound in so many
respects, however it certainly is not a beautiful tone all the time. He is
able to play extremely brilliantly and then take the tone, when the music
calls for it, and melt all that urgency into intimacy. Yes usually with an
English style vibrato (thank you Haydn Draper and Reginald Kell). Who else
does this? Thirdly he has the talent to walk out on stage and make the air
sizzle with excitement. There is something very thrilling about Gervase.
You know something is going to happen when he walks out on stage, in this
respect he is a natural performer.

Now for some info that any of you that have been affected positively or
negatively by Gervase de Peyer's playing might find interesting. Sometime
in the mid sixties he became very dissatisfied with mouthpieces. I studied
off and on with him from 1966-68. I remember that he was always trying to
find a mouthpiece that could give him the ability of playing with great
flexibility. When he made the 2nd recording of the Weber Quintet (for
EMI/angel) Cecil Aronowitz, violist with Melos ensemble, told me that he
would squeak so much that took out a pocket knife and work on his mouthpiece
when the rest of them listened to playbacks!! I remember once when he was
about 40 yrs. old that he showed me a box with over a hundred mouthpieces
that he had worked on.

I think that after he came back to London after studying with Cahuzac he
played his best. It was then that he just got into the London Symphony
Orchestra and recorded his first Mozart Conc. (the one with the bassoon
conc. on the other side). He played it like Weber. It was very fast and
brilliant. Jim Lytthans has this recording. Incidentally he is the
clarinetist on just about all the recordings of the LSO in the sixties.
He's the clarinetist on the Joseph Krips Beethoven Cycle, all the Dvorak
cycle with Istvan Kertez (also Galanta Dances with Kertez), and a slew of
other ones. He also played Principal on all the Peter Maag Mendelssohn
works (probably the greatest Scottish symphony ever recorded, thanks Peter
Maag)

Shortly after he recorded the Weber2/Spohr1, with the young Colin Davis
conducting a rough sounding LSO, the Weber 5tet and Kegelstatt and a
clarinet recital album including Le Tombeau de Ravel, Martinu Sonatina and
Weber Grand duo Concertante. These recordings launched his career. There
was a new voice on the clarinet, nobody had ever played like that before.
Wow. All of a sudden the clarinet opened up an exciting experience, not
just another beautiful sound. He could play like Kell but also with the
energy of Horowitz.

At any rate he had some dental work (never have an English dentist do
work on your mouth) including a root canal sometime in 1967 and from then on
his tone began to deteriorate, also he started squeaking a lot. I think
that his dental work, and not therefore not being able to produce the tone
he wanted to, and his drive to make the polarize the tempers of the music
had a negative effect on certain aspects of his tone.

I hope he is doing well, like Kell his career never did that well when
he came to America and I know he's probably not all that happy with the way
certain events have gone. He tried to launch a conducting career but it
never took.