Klarinet Archive - Posting 000005.txt from 2001/01

From: "Michael Bryant" <michael@-----.uk>
Subj: [kl] Reginald Kell - Mozart Concerto reissue
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 05:27:42 -0500

What the critics said:

The Monthly Letter, June 1940

Mozart : Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K.622 (7 sides), Score 2/6 ; Album
2/6, by Reginald Kell and members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra,
under Malcolm Sargent. 4 records, 16 /-.

Mozart's only clarinet concerto, and his last work in concerto form, was
composed just over two months before his death on December 5th, 1791.
It is a lovely product of his mature genius, and bears no trace of the poor
state of health, and other troubles, which afflicted the composer at the
time. Like the quintet, K.581 in the same key, this concerto was written for
Anton Stadler, a virtuoso of the clarinet; and might, therefore, be expected
to contain flowery cadenzas and much opportunity for solo work ;
but Mozart took a better course by embodying the solo instrument in the
material of the work, which is so entrancing and absorbing in itself that
the difficulties of the clarinet part are not conspicuous. The orchestra,
which consists of two flutes, two bassoons, two horns and strings,
has an important part to play, and its music is exceedingly beautiful.
Mozart explores the full range of the clarinet, a favourite device being
the rapid contrasting of the dark, low tones with the upper register,
a technique which is particularly effective in the hymn-like Adagio.
In the Rondo the gay quips and rippling passages of the
solo instrument attract the listener's attention more than in the other
two movements '. This work should be welcomed by all who love
Mozart's music, especially as the set is so reasonably priced,
for it has never been available before in complete form,
and both performance and recording are superb.
The last side contains No. 1 of Schumann's Fantasiestucke, Op. 73,
for clarinet and piano, also new to records. The piano part is played
by Gerald Moore.

The movements of the concerto are : Allegro (3 sides) ; Adagio (2 sides) ;
Rondo-Allegro (2 sides).
___________________

The Gramophone June 1940

R. Kell and London Philharmonic Orchestra (Sargent) : Clarinet Concerto in
A, K.622 (Mozart) ; and R. Kell and Gerald Moore (piano) : No 1: from
Phantasiestuecke, Op. 73 (Schumann). H.M.V. C 3167-70 (12 ins., 16sh.).
Auto. C7543-6· Concerto score, Eulenberg.

I lack, owing to war-time exigencies, sides 5 and 6, containing the second
part of the slow movement and the first part of the finale. I like the
recording immensely : most of all, the light, pure, sweet clarinet tone, so
flexibly expressive, so poised and directed to the heart of meaning. To
listen to every note's intention has been one of the best of my month's
pleasures.

" Hectic beauty " is a right word for the quality of this work, written only
ten weeks before the composer died. The player Stadler was in his mind, to
whom the clarinet quintet was dedicated. He had written, a year or two
before, some part of a movement for the basset horn (not a horn, but an alto
clarinet), for Stadler, and this unfinished movement he worked up into the
one now recorded. The lightness of the writing is almost that of chamber
music, as Gerber points out. How rare is the sensibility to employ all the
instrument's wide compass, its deftness in figuration, its affectionate
breathings and tender revolution, without making a show-concerto of the
music, or employing soloist and orchestra in a struggle.

Strings, flutes, bassoons and horns paint the background against which the
melting beauty of the clarinet's tones limns [draws or paints] the autumnal
slow movement, that we may feel, sings with the simplicity of genius the
eternal truths about man's life, and the hold upon his heart that the best
of this world's happiness must have. The opening of the work moves with a
special grace of freedom in its first melody. There is a long opening ; the
second tune of note comes (beginning in A minor and turning to C major)
about two-thirds of the way on side 1. Before the end of the side a third
quickly follows, in E (starting with a half scale ascending). The exposition
is not completed until well on side 2 (about 1 1/4 ins. in). Some happy
romantic touches develop the music on this side ; distinguished feeling,
unlike much first-movement writing : with a deeper significance and a darker
colour. On side 3 the recapitulation comes, the second theme much earlier
than before. Some delicious brush-strokes in the romantic vein follow before
the end.

The slow movement's only other recording, apparently, is that in the
Columbia History of Music, Vol. 3 ([Haydn] Draper) (this movement alone).
The work as a whole was recorded by this artist (Brunswick), but withdrawn
(Enc. Rec.M.). I have not the Columbia album. This movement I have to leave
half way, side 5 being missing, but it is of such loveliness that again I
wish (presuming it to occupy two sides) it had been put on one record, so
that it could be bought separately ; though the work as a whole is well
worth possessing. The final Rondo is nobly balanced, as the score attests.

The fill-up is one of three pieces for clarinet written in 1849 (the title
word on the disc lacks the modification of the u, by the way. It should be
u-umnlaut), Again we enjoy romantic sensibility, which it is interesting to
compare with Mozart's. Schumann in this mood can be angelically serene, and
this is a favourable example of his art, in which both parts record
excellently.

___________________

The Gramophone August 1992

MOZART Concerto for clarinet and orchestra in A, K 622; Quintet for clarinet
and strings in A, K581; Clarinet Trio in E flat "Kegelstatt", K498,·
Reginald Kell, Frederick Riddle (va). Louis Kentner; Philharmonia Quartet,
Henry Holst, Ernest Element, Herbert Downes, Anthony Pini); London
Philharmonia Orchestra / Sir Malcolm Sargent Testament mono SBT1007 78
minutes· ADD Item marked · from HMV C3167-70 (6/40), Columbia DX 1187/90
(5/45) DX998/1000 (3/41).

Jack Brymer, who contributes admirable insert- notes to this CD (though they
weren't properly proof read), calls the present performances "superb" and
hails Kell as having brought something new to clarinet playing with his
"freedom of expression perfect intonation and control, easy rubato and use
of a vocalised vibrato much in the Goossens manner". He was already though
only in his early twenties, a highly experienced player, having been
principal in the RPO, LPO, LSO and the Liverpool Philharmonic, as well
as,the splendid BBC Salon Orchestra, much missed by all who remember it and
containing the cream of London's instrumentalists.

In the case of the Clarinet Quintet here, little needs to be added to
Brymer's encomium [high recommendation]: this is a delectable performance,
and only the shallow recorded quality prevents it being still among the best
choices for this glorious work. There are, however, reservations to be made
about the Trio and the Concerto. In the former, Kell's playing is lovely,
and Riddle is richly sonorous, but Kentner is over-emphatic (making the
Minuet heavily pompous), rather wayward in pace and anachronistically
romantic; and despite Keith Hardwick's expert ministrations in the transfer
process, the surface noise from the old 78s is inescapable and obtrusive. If
the Trio is romanticised, the Concerto is played extremely coolly by Kell:
this has its charm, especially in the light-footedness of the Rondo, but in
general there is some feeling of impersonality (except in the suitably
tender Adagio) But Dr Sargent (as he was then) couldn't have been too happy
with the LPO's violins which in 1940 were obviously below par: in more than
one place they are not well together or absolutely in tune, and their turns
in the first movement are not clean. The recording, too, is wiry; but
fortunately it hasn't affected Kell's own tone. L.S. [Lionel Salter]

MB
_____
Michael Bryant, Michael@-----.uk
Tel (messages 24hrs) & Fax by request
+44 (0) 20 8390 3236
http://www.bryant14.demon.co.uk
Rosewood Publications url:
http://freespace.virgin.net/s.westmeath
and http://www.rosewoodpublications.co.uk

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