Klarinet Archive - Posting 001016.txt from 2000/06

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Mozart Concerto - Benny Goodman recording
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 22:15:14 -0400

Jim Hobby wrote:

>Several clarinetists have been mentioned, but I haven't seen any opinions
>about the Benny Goodman recording [of the Mozart Concerto]. It was
>the first recording I had.
>(Being a packrat, I may still have it, but haven't wandered upstairs to dig
>through my LPs.) Even if it was a case of first opinion, I always enjoyed
>his playing. Opinions?

This was my first recording of the Mozart Concerto, too. It's still
available on CD. Listening to it again, I hear a mix of excellent and
less-than-excellent things.

The CD reissue reveals small faults that are inaudible on the original LP -
intonation problems, technical fluffs, nuances that don't come off.

On the plus side, it sounds like it was recorded in a single take, with the
advantages in coherence and cumulative effect that are seldom present in an
edited collage of takes (at least IMO).

More important, as a jazz player, Goodman was intensely aware of underlying
harmony and how phrase shapes are influenced by harmony. I hear a
"rightness" in his phrasing that eludes many (though certainly not all)
non-jazz players.

Of course Mozart never heard jazz, but he did live at a time when
improvisation was the order of the day and required the same sort of
awareness of harmonic structure.

No recording of the Mozart makes it unnecessary to listen to others. Goodman
is not at the top of my list, but it's one of the recordings that demands to
be heard and taken seriously.

Ken Shaw

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