Klarinet Archive - Posting 000717.txt from 2000/09
From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Would you have liked it?
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 09:08:08 -0400
I was going to contribute to the thread on what recordings of the Brahms
I like best -- or, perhaps I should say, what recordings of the Brahms
*they* like best -- or then again, perhaps I wasn't. You never know
what might happen, do you?
But anyway, I *was* playing with the controls of my Subjunc TV this
afternoon, and came across an interesting programme, perhaps guided
subconsciously by the fact that I'd been thinking about Brahms.
On this subjunctv programme, there were recordings of the Brahms Op 120
no. 1 clarinet sonata being played, and a panel of experts giving their
opinions. I was particularly taken by the performance by Tadeusz
Brenagramschildsputz, with Eva Pong at the piano, that happened to be
playing as I tuned in.
This is a pretty 'way out' frequency on the programme, actually, but all
the experts agreed with me that this was the best version that was ever
likely not to enter the catalogue, and thus for us not to get to hear,
because it had never been recorded. The nostalgia and sense of loss
that's so much a part of the Brahms was, I'd say, unbeatably captured by
these performers.
But fiddling with the controls a bit more, I came across something a bit
more understandable: the performance by Jacques Breimer. This was what
would have resulted if Jack Brymer had been born in France of German
parents, and had insisted at an early age on teaching himself to play a
Wurlitzer clarinet.
It was fascinating at last to be able to hear what national clarinet
playing character actually amounts to, as well as the difference that
the German instrument makes when you play a German piece.
Then, I twiddled the settings once more, and got the performance of
Richard Stzomtlan. (I could have had Richard Stoltzman, but I thought it
would be interesting to see how his performance would have changed if
the Registrar at his birth had been dyslexic. I can therefore report,
not by much.)
Richard was playing something else, however. He was playing the first
sonata that Brahms would have written (apparently there are four or
five, of which the first is in F major) if Brahms had actually married
Clara Schumann. Richard conveyed the optimism and exuberance of this
wonderful piece, finding a new and different way of interpreting every
espressivo marking, in a way that I really had to admire, even though it
wasn't particularly to my taste.
Investigating the channels around this performance, I found to my
surprise that several didn't have any music on them at all, just an
actor reading Brahms's advice on fathering as a mature man. But
apparently the explanation is that he wrote a small book on the subject,
and never had the time to meet Muehlfeld.
But then I made a real discovery, one that I still find it difficult to
believe is possible. I found a channel that had Stzomtlan's
performance, but sounding as it *would* have sounded to me if it *had*
been to my taste!
Wow! If only we could always use this facility!
Of course, it would make lists of what performances people like best a
bit irrelevant, but even for people who like doing that sort of thing,
it seems a small price to pay for the increase in enjoyment.
What does everyone think about that? Or if you don't know what you
think, what *would* you think if you thought something about that?
Just imagine, we could all listen, say, to Schoenberg's chamber symphony
as it would sound *if we actually liked it*, and perhaps even, I could
find out what it would sound like if I *didn't*!
Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339
..... with apologies to Douglas Hofstadter....
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org
