Klarinet Archive - Posting 000092.txt from 1998/07
From: "Steven J Goldman, MD" <gpsc@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mozart and the V word
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 1998 18:37:20 -0400
Mr. H
-----Original Message-----
From: ROBERT HOWE [mailto:arehow@-----.net]
Subject: [kl] Mozart and the V word
Various writers debated:
".....> There is a great deal wrong with playing a piece in a manner
> inconsistent with the way it was performed at the original concerts.
> In fact, if you execute in this fashion, you do not understand what you
> are doing.
>
I heartily disagree with you here. You are stating that there is
one, and
only one correct way to perform a piece. Considering all the
possibilities -
simply the fact that there are many different recordings of the same
piece AND
that the public accepts and purchases them - this statement is in the
realms of
saying that "we are the only intelligent beings in the universe."....."
What horsesh-t the first correspondant has written. No piece has a
single fashion of performance that is correct. Despite all of our
study, none of us REALLY know what was "proper performance practice" in
Mozart's day--or Tchaikovsky's, or Stravinsky's. Look at how Stravinsky
speaks of his late-in-life recordings of the early ballets, he notes (to
the effect that) his conducting in his 70s makes the Rite of Spring a
wholly different piece than it was when he wrote it 50 years earlier.
Vibrato--one can find references from the letters of Mozart that show
that Anton Stadler used vibrato in his performances, presumably
including those of Mozart's works.
Recently I was playing oboe trio sonatas of Handel with Matt Peaceman,
the German baroque oboist, Steve Hammer was at the Harpsichord. Steve
is one of America's most noted baroqueand classical oboists, and is an
authority on 18th century wind performance practice. I apologised for
my use of the vibrato at one point, Steve responded that vibrato was
indeed a matter of taste in the 18th century (as if it were not today!),
that I was using it tastefully, and so what was the big deal?
So, immerse yourself in original performance practice literature and
workshops; listen to fine singers and to Eric Hoeprich and Steve Hammer
and Chris Hogwood and other fine Original Instrument interpreters; then
go out and make the best music that yoi can. In your own way. And
always have fun, and always emote. If you do this, no one will care if
youuse vibrato, if your trills begin on the upper or lower neighbor, or
other such minute points of hair-splitting.
Robert Howe
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