Klarinet Archive - Posting 000934.txt from 2000/06
From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Conductors--Rant; Marcellus's Mozart Concerto
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 22:49:03 -0400
on 6/22/00 8:02 PM, Ken Shaw wrote:
>listen to the first recording made by Gervase De Peyer, with Anthony
>Collins conducting the London Philharmonic (I think), from the late 1950s
>when De Peyer was in his glorious prime. It has recently been reissued on
>CD. Every phrase is alive and breathing and fits naturally with the next.
If you and I are discussing the same recording, it's Peter Maag
conducting and London Symphony. Especially in the third movement, it
really dances. It was a revelation the first time I heard it.
Alf Horberg wrote:
>> My opinion is that it should not be performed by anybody who haven't
>reached
>> the musical maturity that it deserves just because it's relatively
>> technically easy.
and on 6/22/00 6:17 PM, Anna Dodgshun wrote:
>I totally agree. I don't play the Mozart (except if I have to, for an
>audition or something) because I don't feel that I can play it the way it
>should be played.
I have to disagree with this approach. It seems to me like waiting to buy
a computer until you've got the "latest and greatest". If you do that,
you'll never buy one, because you know that two weeks later (if that!) it
will be surpassed and obsolete. When will any of us be "ready" to play K.
622?
Anna, who's to say how it "should" be played? Granted, we know a few
things about the style of Mozart and the late 18th century to guide us,
and we have technical standards which we should try our best to uphold in
playing any piece, really. but who is the "Mozart Police" who will arrest
us if we don't play it "the way it should be played."
>I did play it when I was fifteen, for an exam, but I
>haven't played it seriously since, because my perspective on the piece has
>changed (when I did play it, I played it the way I thought it should be
>played, but that was then!) and my musical demands for the piece are way
>higher now.
Any piece worth exerting some effort to play will change for you each
time you play it. Because *you* have changed each time you come back to
the piece. A sign of a good piece is how much it has to offer you each
time you play it. Yes, our musical standards change, and hopefully they
get higher. As you play pieces repeatedly, you develop approaches to
those pieces, some of which you retain from performance to performance,
and some of which you change.
I, too played K.622 for the first time when I was 15 or so. I found it on
the music rack of my small town music store, and while I had no idea what
it was, I *did* recognize the name of the composer, and enjoyed playing
the music. My church choir director/organist very patiently played the
accompaniment for me after I had done an "in depth" [;-)] two weeks worth
of practice on it. (BTW, It was Eric Simon's Schirmer edition for Bb
clarinet and piano - I can hear Dan's arteries hardening as we speak!)
>Maybe in another few years I'll go back to it and be able to
>get out of it what I want to, but not right now. I'm nearly 21 now, and
>I've been immersed in music my whole life, but 21 years of music is not
>enough for the Mozart.
I've played K.622 in various circumstances many times since age 15. On
the one hand, I understand what you mean about waiting to play it again.
I'm 50, and in some ways, 50 years is not enough for "the Mozart." OTOH,
every time you play it, you add to your experiences with the music, and
give yourself new insights into the music (at least if you're trying, you
do) even though they may not be conscious ones.
I certainly don't mean to imply that we should allow our students to play
things that are inappropriate to their abilities - that's another issue.
But for me this attitude (not being "ready" or "worthy") is one of the
things that is wrong in classical music - that reverent, peudo-religious,
ivory tower approach to something that lives and breathes here and now,
at least in the successful performances. I hope I've conveyed my thoughts
clearly - this is a hot button issue for me, and I can get pretty
irrational about it.
My $0.02...
David
David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/
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