Klarinet Archive - Posting 000266.txt from 1998/12

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: RE: [kl] Schubert Octet edition
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 02:06:06 -0500

On Sat, 5 Dec 1998 17:37:32 -1300, leeson@-----.edu said:

> The Peters edition score (but not the parts) had some alternative
> clarinet music that was edited out by a very wise person. Schubert
> wrote a very peculiar and extraordinarily uncharacteristic clarinet
> part (very unusual) that borders on both the unplayable and the
> uncharacteristic. So the parts are traditional, but the score
> (and it has been a long time) has the original as an ossia.

Well, Dan, I'm sorry to disagree with you here, but I'm sure you'll take
that in your stride, as ever.

There are two different passages, one in the first and one in the last
movement. I think to play Schubert's original version of the first
movement isn't really a problem, nowadays.

In the last movement, my experience is that it's mostly the violinists
that object to the original version. And it's not so much the solo
part but the triplet octaves that persist after the solo, that they
object to. Fortunately these triplet octaves, very difficult though
they are, aren't so important. If the violinist plays the solo in
triplets, the precise details of the subsequent octaves aren't really
heard so clearly against the rest of the ensemble. The great player
plays them, the less great fudges them a bit, and it's hard to tell the
difference.

For us, the awkwardness in the triplet solo is just the top D. And
given the speed of the passage, an 'open' D is quite acceptable. (It's
a seventh on E major, after all, so it *needs* to be flattish.)
So usually, the problem is that the clarinet player can put the
violinist to shame.

(Another striking thing for the violinist in the last movement is the
very high note in the repeat of the slow passage: Schubert writes it an
octave higher than appears in the Peters part. But it can be done,
either as a harmonic or for real.)

So the upshot is that the wise person might have been wise for his time,
but we've moved on. It's playable even on a period clarinet! So I'd
say, go for the Barenreiter.

As for those violinists, well....they can do anything if they practise,
can't they?-)

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
tel/fax 01865 553339

"...his playing soars so freely, one is aware of witchcraft without
noticing a single magical gesture."
(C.D.F.Schubart on the harpsichord playing of C.P.E.Bach)

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