Klarinet Archive - Posting 000397.txt from 1999/06

From: "Benjamin A. Maas" <benmaas@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] New Chester edition of the Stravinsky 3 Pieces
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 20:52:45 -0400

I have heard lots of stories about the numerous misprints in the Chester and
International editions. This new edition is supposed to have corrected many
of them. The type bothers me some, but my main concerns deal with
performance practice.

Over the many years of hearing this piece, people have become accustomed to
listening to certain notes and rhythms. From an academic standpoint, I like
to perform these corrections and play it as Stravinsky meant it. (I have
heard of other misprints that are even in this edition as well as the old).
My problems have been in performance of this piece for competitions and
auditions. Do you perform corrections that sound different and make a judge
think you are making a mistake? Or, do you perform the tried and true that
has been done for the 70 years since the last Chester/International edition?

To the specific issues, I have some comments from personal experience (It is
late at night, and I don't have my music right here, so I apologize for no
exact examples).

#1: Page turns and clarinets: I find that the page turns in this piece
were really annoying between the first and second movements in the old
edition. My personal interpretation of these movements have me play with
little or no pause. (I have theoretical and phrasing reasons for this) The
page turn would interrupt this. So, I would play the first movement from
the page, but the second from memory. I figured the change in clarinets was
enough of an interruption that a page turn wouldn't harm the mood any more.

#4: I had never read Mazzeo's article, but my teacher (Mitchell Lurie)
worked on these with Stravinsky. He has similar things to say about how
breaths should be used. To say that all of the commas should be worth the
same amount of time is really not giving the music justice. Some phrases
call for the breaths to be longer than others.

I guess, with all of my rambling here, what I am saying is that the new
edition has its faults, but from an academic standpoint, I find it
interesting. I am not familiar with all of the earlier editions to which he
refers to by number. But from what I have heard from people that knew
Stravinsky, there were misprints that never got fixed. I perform this piece
in a lot of competitions and therefore I play what has been done for years.
If I play on a recital, I perform the corrections.

--Ben

Benjamin Maas
Freelance Clarinetist and Recording Engineer
Los Angeles, CA
benmaas@-----.com

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