Klarinet Archive - Posting 001235.txt from 2000/10

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Spohr Concerto No. 1
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 20:46:42 -0400

I was going through old digests and came to Scott MacDonald's September 10
query:
> I am planning to perform the Spohr C minor concerto in a recital in
February and I am looking for some performance techniques and tips to the
performance of the Concerto. Any assistance would be more than appreciated.<

Scott -

First, run, don't walk, to your nearest used record shop and get the Gervase
de Peyer LP of Spohr # 1 and Weber # 2. It's his best recording, and IMHO
the finest ever of these concertos. Avoid like the plague the Leister
recording, which he sleepwalks through, playing every note perfectly and
giving a bored and boring performance.

The Weber concertos almost play themselves. The Spohr concertos need a good
deal from you to bring them off -- a sense of operatic drama, of insane
difficulties met and conquered. Early in the first movement of # 1, you have
to pop a super high C. You have to let the audience know how difficult this
is, while simultaneously getting a secure, non-squeaky tone. De Peyer does
this perfectly.

Several years ago, the first 1/3 of the Spohr # 1 first movement was the
competition piece at the Clarinet Congress. The excerpt ended where the
pianist has the melody in the left hand and the clarinet is noodling
curlicues and furbelows. Every one of the contestants (even the winner)
played the decoration as if it was the melody, ignoring the actual melody in
the "accompaniment" part. Spohr does this frequently, and you have to be
aware of it. (To go back to my Beethoven posting, this is why you have to
practice reading from the piano book instead of just the solo part, and why
you have to work a lot with your pianist before you are set to perform.)

To play Spohr, you need to listen to lots of opera. You have to be able to
roar, to be seductive, to be mad for revenge, to plunge into deepest sorrow.
The notes are the easy part.

Have fun.

Ken Shaw

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