Klarinet Archive - Posting 000096.txt from 1999/03

From: Stephen Heinemann <sjh@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Re: HIP
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 10:22:14 -0500

On March 1 "B. Keplinger" wrote:

>[...] made
>me realize just how revolutionary Beethoven's music was, and how it must
>have inflamed critics and fans alike. How much we miss in the beautiful,
>but comparatively antiseptic, performances of the modern symphony
>orchestra
>[...]
> And, except for Webern and the like, I think there are few composers
>who don't want to give musicians leeway, to truly make *music* of their
>work. Isn't this, after all, what we put ourselves through the torture
>of the musical life for (food for more flaming, yes?)?

I recently heard a wonderful performance of Webern's Op. 21 in which the
clarinetist performed the theme as precisely as possible, employing the
composer's carefully considered dynamics, everything perfectly in tune,
and balanced with the entire (although small) ensemble, and it reminded me
how inappropriate everything would have sounded had it been filtered
through 19th-century performance practice. It also reminded me how
Webern's music inflamed critics and fans alike, falling as it did outside
their experience and requiring them to reassess their concept of what
constitutes *music*.

Steve Heinemann
Bradley University
sjh@-----.edu

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