Klarinet Archive - Posting 000539.txt from 2000/01

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] The Brahms quintet and the Bb clarinet
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 22:39:55 -0500

Having thought about all this a bit more, and gone back and read some of
the things written about Muehlfeld by his contemporaries, I think I want
to put a different emphasis on what I said before.

I still maintain that the passage that is printed as an ossia for Bb
clarinet in the Simrock edition (yes, we know from this edition exactly
which bit Muehlfeld played on the Bb) lies exceptionally well for the
Ottensteiner A clarinet.

I'd now extend that by saying that, on second thoughts, it's only
surprising that Muehlfeld played it on the Bb if we have at the back of
our minds the idea that the reason he did that was that it was somehow
*easier* on the Bb.

As I've said, my own experience is that it lies less well on the Bb,
because the arpeggios of (written) F minor and Db major have fewer
'good' notes in them on these clarinets than (written) F# minor and D
major, and those 'good' notes mean that it's much easier to produce this
clarity that Doug mentioned, and that I agree is important, not least in
order to achieve the most dramatic possible effect.

But the other line to take is to realise that Muehlfeld was such a great
and able player that it didn't worry him *which* instrument he played
this passage on.

If you read what Joachim had to say about him, then what Brahms had to
say about him, then what even Wagner had to say about him when he was
young...and if you notice how many times he was invited back to
England after his first visit, and so on...then you might well think
that was a plausible conclusion to come to. (Forget the English prat,
if we find him, and his 'joke' assessment.)

So, is there any *other* reason why Muehlfeld might have wanted to
switch to the Bb at that point?

And the answer, surely, is that there is another possible reason, and
one that we might actually benefit from considering seriously in modern
performances. It has to do with the fact those few bars are the high
point, dramatically, not only of the slow movement, but of the entire
piece.

Remember, the clarinet has already cried out desperately at the top of
its register as the key switches to Bb minor for the 'cello theme,
before plunging through three octaves to join the 'cello in a contrary
move from bare fifth to octave. After that stroke, amazing in its own
right, the strings begin to build their implacable tremolo; and only
then does the marking 'sempre piu' forte' appear, and the clarinettist
must begin to make it bite.

Perhaps Muehlfeld found that he needed something more at that point to
give Brahms what he asked for. Perhaps he saw that he could achieve an
extra level of intensity by changing clarinets -- perhaps even by
picking up another complete instrument, including mouthpiece and reed.

After all, for the rest of the piece he would want a setup favouring a
sort of intimate eloquence, a sound-palette that allowed the clarinet to
disappear into the string texture, yielding to the first violin almost
as often as being a solo voice in its own right. Indeed, given the
nature of his Ottensteiners, this would probably have been his special
quality.

But here he could have something else -- something that he could push
even further, giving him an extra four bars of terrifying crescendo...
before the relief of the recapitulation.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

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