Klarinet Archive - Posting 000583.txt from 1998/01

From: Mark Charette <charette@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Matt Snyder and vibrato
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 09:33:03 -0500

Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:
<snip>
> Who
> is to say that Brahms' clarinetist did not use vibrato? There
> is no writing that I know of that speaks of this aspect of his
> playing, either pro or con.

An article I have on sneezy, authored by Conrad Josias (found in
the Klarinet Archives - reprinted at
http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Study/Vibrato.html):

> In view of the recent discussions about Anton Stadler and his
> basset clarinet(s), I couldn't resist saying something about
> another historical clarinetist -- something that relates to
> your comment about vibrato. I thought you might be interested.
>
> I cite the following passage about Richard Muhlfeld, the
> clarinetist who inspired Brahms' great chamber works. This
> quotation is from the book, "Clarinet," by Jack Brymer, which
> is one of the Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides:
>
> ".........A reminiscence of no less a player than Muhlfeld
> himself seems to suggest that the use of vibrato may have
> fallen out of fashion temporarily after his day, to return
> after about thirty years. Just before World War II a
> question was put to a very old viola player, sometime
> conductor of the Duke of Devonshire's Orchestra, about the
> playing of Muhlfeld. The old man had occasionally been
> called by Joachim to play in his quartet, and on several
> occasions had played the Brahms Quintet with the great
> Muhlfeld. Of the clarinetist's playing he was most
> enthusiastic, saying that three things mainly stuck in his
> memory. 'He used two clarinets, A and Bb, for the slow
> movement, to simplify the gypsy section; he had a fiery
> technique with a warm tone -- and a big vibrato.' Asked
> again by a startled questioner if he didn't mean to say
> 'rubato' the old man looked puzzled. 'No' he said, 'vibrato
> -- much more than Joachim, and as much as the cellist.'"
>
> How about them apples? Brymer concedes that, without a second-party
> confirmation, the report is without official authority. But he
> points out that the achievements of exceptional players like
> Muhlfeld do not always take root in the years that follow their
> finest period.
>
> Posted on Klarinet Fri, 28 Oct 1994

Some of the gems buried in the archives ...
--
Mark Charette, Webmaster - http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet
Web/Personal - charette@-----.org
Business - charette@-----.com
"There's already an educational TV channel - it's called 'off'."
Lily Henderson, age 11