Klarinet Archive - Posting 000545.txt from 2000/01

From: David Glenn <notestaff@-----.de>
Subj: Re: [kl] The Brahms quintet and the Bb clarinet
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 07:39:23 -0500

Tony Pay wrote:

> 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
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> ++++++++++++++++++++

I liked that so much, I printed it out and put in with my music. Thanks,
Tony!

David

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