Klarinet Archive - Posting 000352.txt from 2000/09

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Schoenberg
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 18:17:36 -0400

On Sun, 10 Sep 2000 14:14:34 EDT, GrabnerWG@-----.com said:

> You know, as I age I am becoming increasingly cranky, cynical, and
> jaded.....However, listening to a performance of a piece like
> "Pierrot" can still give me chills...

'Our' other piece is of course the Suite, op 29, for 3 clarinets, string
trio and piano.

Lots of Schoenberg's chamber music is interesting. The Serenade op 24
is more than that -- it's wonderful, like the string quartets. Though I
have to confess that I never really managed to like the Wind quintet op
26, despite having played it a lot, both with and without a conductor.

Still, op 29 is another matter.

Try the variations movement. The bit with bass clarinet and piano is
*extraordinary*.

And how about the slow interlude, before the final bit in the last
movement? Breathtaking.

When I got to know it, I counted this work as a masterpiece. It shows
no signs of the academicism you might have expected, given that it
was written using strict serial technique.

(And that's as it should be.)

It's not played so often because it's very difficult to get three
clarinets sensitive enough to match a string trio. And the piano part
requires a great artist and technician.

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

...."I would hazard a guess that the work would not have sounded much
different (even to ears of the perfect pitch variety) had Eb clarinets,
C trumpets, cor ang, Eb horns all been used also." (Tony Wakefield on
Schoenberg Chamber Symphony Op 9.)

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