Klarinet Archive - Posting 000941.txt from 2000/06

From: Audrey Travis <vsofan@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Conductors--Rant; Marcellus's Mozart Concerto
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 00:54:23 -0400

I'm inspired to write because I wish I had been the one lucky enough to hear and
see Robert Marcellus perform/record live. I have musical heroes and he is one
of them. Each of us comes to clarinet and to music from a most individual point
of view, need or reason. Each one of us treasures different aspects of
learning, listening (to others) and performing ourselves. This is why we each
like, love, hate or revere different performances of the same work. We all
listen for, hear others, play and perform for different reasons. There is no
right or wrong. What is wondrous to me may be rancourous to another.

What draws me to clarinet is tone quality in an orchestral setting above all
else. A sound which touches my heart and reaches into my soul is pure heaven
for me. Many months ago I wrote that Marcellus' Mozart performance, was, for
me, the most compelling, gorgeous performance I had ever heard in my entire
life. I do not judge his performance on technique, interpretation, use or lack
of use of ornamentation, his use of A clarinet instead of basset clarinet, the
edition he performed, whether he sat or stood or anything else objective. I am
NOT objective. I simply heard pure, sweet, exalted sound. Why else would I
have listened to it an estimated 50 times in a row in three months? Later, as I
listened to other Cleveland recordings featuring Marcellus as Principal, I
continued to be deeply in awe of that sound. I simply couldn't get enough of
that sound. Why I was so inevitably drawn to his tone quality eluded me for a
year and a half after I began my own clarinet studies. There was sometimes a
combination of the music itself coupled with that sound that was irresistable to
me. Finally I realized that for me, his sound, that kind of clarinet sound was
the purest form of prayer and earthly expression of the soul. I still believe
that while the strings are the heart of the orchestra, the clarinet is its soul.

That is what I want- to produce the clarinet sound which will connect with my
own soul and speak with the Divine. Each of you wants something different from
music, so you hear, interpret, learn and perform differently.

Although I am now ready to hear other 'interpretations' of the Mozart, but there
will always be a delightfully special place in my heart for Robert Marcellus.

Audrey

MVinquist@-----.com wrote:

> I was at Oberlin at the time the Marcellus Mozart Concerto was recorded and
> went to a live performance at Severance Hall. Marcellus sat in a chair with
> the music in front of him, in the position where the concertmaster would
> normally sit -- that is, within the orchestra rather than in front.
>
> I heard that he could not play standing because severe diabetes had loosened
> his teeth. However, I was still surprised that he read from the printed
> music and did not position himself as a soloist. Also, he watched Szell for
> every entrance. At the cadenza in the slow movement, they turned to face one
> another, locked eyes, and Szell conducted each note individually.
>
> The recording was made at that time and is perfect in every way, but has a
> reverential air about it that keeps the phrases from breathing. For an
> anodyne, 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. I
> have over 100 recordings of K. 622, and to my mind, this is the best ever.
>
> Best regards.
>
> Ken Shaw
>
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