Klarinet Archive - Posting 000912.txt from 1998/12

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Stolzman and opinions
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 22:07:40 -0500

In my opinion, this kind of question ("What do you think of Stoltzman?")
brings out the greatest number of incomprehensible postings. An opinion
on Stoltzman (or anyone for that matter) should be meaningful to the
readers of that posting. One does not have to agree but one must
understand it.

If you say "He plays too loudly" I can understand that and it is a point
for discussion.

But if one says that one does not like him because his sound is insufficiently
"chocolately, liquidy, and poetic" that is a perception that is so
very personal (and to me, quite incomprehensible) that I don't know what
to do with it. If I were Stoltzman and wanted to fix those things that
this particular opinion characterized, exactly what the hell would I
do to make it better? Visit a Hershey factory? Read a lot of romantic
sonnets? Exactly what do I do with my fingers, my head, my body, etc. to
get the tone more chocolatety?

If the purpose of an opinion is to communicate what one thinks, then
one has to concentrate on things that a musician can understand and
do something about. I admit that beauty of tone is very ephemeral and
difficult to characterize. But if I were to say, that I like Stoltzman
because his sound has the right amount of chocolaticity, liquidosity, and
is as poetic as a Shakespeare sonnet, you would have every right to say,
"What on earth does that mean?"

Starting at the beginning: does Stoltzman play in tune? Does he make
technical errors? Does he make rhythmic errors?

It should be fairly obvious that he does none of those things or else
he wouldn't be in the business very long.

Entering into the ephemeral world, one needs to address issues such as
tone character somewhat more objectively than was done in the example
I am mentioning.

What about performance practices? Does he play Mozart as if it were
Stravinsky? Does he play Brahms as if it were Palestrina?

But to say that his sound is not chocolatety enough is not the kind of
thinking that any mature clarinetist should have in his/her repertoire.

We are constanltly reading reviews which say that "xxx does not have
the slightest understanding of the inherent ephemeral qualities of
Debussy" and careers balance on such nonsense. Tell that to a student,
even a good student, and s/he will be left very puzzled about what to
do to fix the problem (if, indeed, one exists in the first place but
talking about the ephemeral nature of Debussy is going to leave a student
as insecure as hell).

If one is going to criticize an artist such as Stoltzman, then is
should be done with considerably more thought, care, and precision
than chocolate, liquid, and poetry.

Does he play too loudly?

Does he play too softly?

Exactly what is wrong with his performances?

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
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