Klarinet Archive - Posting 001067.txt from 1999/09

From: "Daniel A. Paprocki" <danbascl@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Definitive Recordings
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 09:26:48 -0400

Mario,
I think the thing about the Reiner recordings isn't so much the clarinet
playing but the overall excellence of the orchestra, the blending, tempos,
interpretation, etc. Don't forget these recording were made in an era when
the conductor treated the orchestra as his own and was there for almost all
the season. I think it's the whole picture of the Reiner or Szell recording
that is impressive - not just the clarinet playing. Maybe Reiner or Szell
spent more time on the score than today's "jet in and do the show"
conductors.

Dan
--
Daniel A. Paprocki
Instructor of Clarinet & Saxophone
Angelo State University
San Angelo, Texas

----------
>From: KlarBoy@-----.com
>To: klarinet@-----.org
>Subject: [kl] Definitive Recordings
>Date: Wed, Sep 29, 1999, 11:12 PM
>

> 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.
>
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