Klarinet Archive - Posting 001056.txt from 1999/09

From: KlarBoy@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Definitive Recordings
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 00:12:46 -0400

If we have definitive recordings does this mean that we believe that a better
performance of the music is not possible, and does this only refer only to
the technical execution of the music? So many of you have metioned the great
Reiner recordings, and I love many of them. As a clarinetist is it harder to
give the distinction of "definitive" to performances of clarinet music. I
don't think I can whole heartedly support one clarinetist's performance of
any given work. I think there's that little part of me that can always find
fault with any given performer, or so I thought. I recently sat in my
parked car listening to a Brahms Eb sonata recording that was on the radio.
I couldn't get out until I heard who was playing. The performance was
dramatic and sensitive and a perfect marriage between piano and clarinet. I
noticed the use of vibrato but was not offended as it was used with such
thoughtful dramatic purpose that I was deeply moved. I was surprised that it
was a recording I had owned for several years and had never "heard" it quite
this way before. The recording was Richard Stoltzman's with Richard Goode.
I've since listened to it several times and now I hear a musician in
Stoltzman that I dismissed when I was younger and in school. How much has my
criteria changed in 8 years? Are older musicians less likely to alter their
preferences. Do our tastes become better with age, or just less flexible?

Perhaps definitive recordings have more to do with style than execution. I
have played numerous all-Strauss concerts (Johann) and can say that
regardless of the quality of the ensemble, these watlzes were still "wrong."
I've played them under Viennese conductors and good and bad orchestras, and I
firmly believe that Americans just can't play this music, close, but no
cigar. The Vienna Philharmonic owns this music. I have a New Year's Day
Concert recording from 1985 with Carlos Kleiber conducting that defines
"definite recording" for me. The concert opens with the most breathtaking
Overture to Die Fleidermaus ever recorded. I don't think there will ever be
an orchestra that can play this music quite like this and when they do, it is
a pale imitation.

~Mario E.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org