Klarinet Archive - Posting 000868.txt from 1999/09

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] re: Mozart 622 performance practice
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 14:32:33 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.89
> Subj: [kl] re: Mozart 622 performance practice

> After reading Dan's post on Marcellus, Smith, and the playing of KV 622, I
> ask the question - was there ANY performances of the Mozart Concerto in the
> 70's that players improvised? Or was it just not done back then? I
> certainly have never heard a recording of them doing it until the 80's. I
> remember hearing a concert broadcast of Cleveland with Cohen in the mid
> 80's, and he improvised quite a bit to the point of almost poking fun at
> the Marcellus recording (I felt). To me it seemed like if the "standard
> recording" couldn't be surpassed, so the Cleveland goal was to totally
> dismiss it (has anyone else heard the broadcast where he plays an arpeggio
> from the last A (1st ledger line above staff) to low F - in last 3 measure
> to end the Mozart Rondo?)
>
> David Blumberg
> playit@-----.com
> http://www.mytempo.com
>
> ---------------------------------------------------

David, the subject of improvisation in Mozart (of which, of course,
K. 622 is a small piece of a very big problem) has been both under
discussion and in implementation since the mid 1960s. Actual recorded
performances of such activity can be found by the early 1970s. Marcellus
knew of the practice by virtue of the fact that he was so opposed to it,
but I suspect that he never had an opportunity to discuss it at any
length, partly because there weren't that many people around at the
time that could discuss it with him, and second, because he was a very
conservative person who was cautious about change, particularly change
that he believed was not in the best interests of the music that he
played so very well. He also was influenced by Szell who was even
more conservative.

The most important improvisor in Mozart's music today is Bob Levin,
who not only modifies the text of the solo parts he plays in a completely
improvisatory fashion, but he also creates his cadenzas on the spot.
I have a recording of Levin playing K. 503 that he did in 1978. It
is a tape performance not a commercial one. He was, of course, doing
it before that time. And although I did not have anything like the
influence that he had, I was improvising within K. 588 as well as
in the clarinet parts of the orchestral music I had occasion to play
in 1965. When I first did a performance of the Requiem on basset horn
in 1965, I asked the conductor if he would object and was given leeway.

Now none of this is a criticism of Marcellus who did not consider it
appropriate to do this thing. My earlier note on the subject was not
addressed to that point, but rather to how Smith couched his response
to Nohe. As I reflect on how I felt when I first heard Marcellus'
recording of K. 622, I was saddened at how the magnificent playing of
this great artist appeared to me to be constrained by his conservative
view of how to play that piece. In the case of, for example, Bellison,
I can't be critical because, during his time, there were no viable
voices discussing this performance issue. But when Marcellus was
working, that was not the case. He chose not to listen, which is his
right, but I must measure him differently because of that choice.

Others, such as Smith, see it differently.

I played with Cohen on a recording of some wind music of Alan Hovannes.
And at the time, I told him how breathtaking hisperformance of K. 622
was when he won a contest in Europe. He was about 19 at the time he won
the contest. Some years later, I heard him do the same work with the
Cleveland and wrote to tell him that I was now saddened that his
performances had undergone no change since the explosive brilliance of
his youth. And I specifically criticized him for not improvising or
at least creating his own eingange at the three places in the concerto
where the invitation is offered. I'm told that he hung the letter on
the bulleting board of the Cleveland Orchestra as evidence of the kind
of nut-case letters that performers get nowadays.

Some years later, he played with Bob Levin in Round Top near Brenham, TX.
Levin was, of course, enamoured of his magnificent playing and I think
that the feeling was mutual with Cohen. But when Levin suggested that
he might consider improvising, Cohen felt that his efforts might not be
as good as Levin's. So Bob suggested he work on it for a while, and you
now see the results of this personal thought on Cohen's part.

And as time continues to go by, there is less and less reason for
younger artists to remain ignorant of how performance habits are changing
in America. A young student playing K. 622 today as effectively and as
brilliantly as Bellison did it in 1935 would be very severely criticized
for that kind of performance (to say nothing of the issues behind not doing
the work on a basset clarinet).

Life changes. Performance issues change. One either goes along with the
winning bunch or else one goes down the proverbial tubes.

The problem is, of course, you never know who the winning bunch is
going to be. During the 1940s, Bach was played in the Stokowski
arrangements. Those who went along with that trend as the winning bunch
are now living in a small town in Wyoming playing a great deal of
country-western music.

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

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