Klarinet Archive - Posting 000556.txt from 1997/12

From: Ken Bryson <kbryson@-----.com>
Subj: Re: More on Gervase
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 19:42:29 -0500

Thanks, John, for a very informative posting on de Peyer's career. I
appreciated your description of the excitement he brings to his
performances. I had been thinking recently about the difference in
reaction to his playing between my clarinetist friends and other
musicians--violinists, pianists, cellists--who are chamber music fans.
In general, the clarinetists are highly critical whereas the other
musicians (perhaps not burdened by a preconceived notion of the
"perfect" clarinet sound) are much more appreciative of him on general
musical terms. That said, even a clarinetist friend of mine, having
heard de Peyer's performance of the Weber Grand Duo last year, found my
Leister recording of the piece rather anemic and, well, boring by
comparison.

I was also interested in the role that dental work can play in changing
one's tone quality. I am about to have two wisdom teeth extracted (the
only parts of my body that possess any wisdom at all, and I'm told
they've got to go!). I have heard many times of wind players' sound
being affected by dental work--generally, not for the better. It makes
sense that if changes of millimeters and less to the inside of a
mouthpiece can radically alter it's playing characteristics, that
changes to the inside of the mouth could do the same for a player. I am
curious if any members of the list have had personal experience of this?
Or the opposite, extensive dental work with no effect on sound?

Nancy

John Gates wrote:
>
> 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.