Klarinet Archive - Posting 000908.txt from 2001/05

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Saeculum Aureum Players
Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 19:15:29 -0400

Today, I received in the mail a gift from an old friend, Bill McColl,
professor of clarinet at Univ. of Washington, Seattle (and make no
mistake about it, he and I hold strongly opposing views on many aspects
related to clarinet playing particularly modern vs. period instruments,
wide bore basset horns vs narrow bore instruments, etc.). The gift was
a recording of music performed on period instruments by Bill on basset
horn, Richard Spece on clarinet, Jeffrey Cohan on flute, and Bonnie
Garrett, fortepiano.

When I say "period instruments," I am referring to the fact that Bill
plays on a copy he made of a basset horn made after Griessling & Schott,
Berlin, ca. 1815, Spece plays on an original Mollenhauer, Fulda clarinet
ca. 1825, Cohan on a copy of an H. Grenser, Dresden flute, ca. 1807 (and
made by Rudolf Tutz of Innsburck, Austria), and the pianist played on a
fortepiano after Anton Walter, Vienna, ca. 1795 (copied by Rodney Regier
of Freeport, Maine).

The recording, entitled Vintage Woodwinds contains 3 works, specifically
the two concertpices for clarinet, basset horn, and piano, and 12
bagatelles for flute, clarinet, and basset horn by the Italian Giovanni
Simone Meyr whose operas I first heard in the early 1970s. He was quite
a composer.

The release is from crystal records and you should be able to look it up
on their website, www.crystalrecords.com

Now here is a wonderful example that complete defeats the idea that only
with technolgical and engineering improvements on woodwinds was it
possible to play elegantly, in tune, and with a full, robust tone
character. Too often we become convinced that that which came before us
was prelude to REAL playing.

The recording is an absolute delight, and the cover of the disk is a
beautiful picture of all three woodwinds.

It's something that you really don't want to be without. On top of all
the other pleasantries, the is considerable departure from the text of
the Mendelssohn works by virtue of interesting improvisations.

(This does not mean that the differences of opinion between Bill and I
have now vanished as a result of his recording. Not at all. He is
still full of doo-doo on those matters, but he plays great on the
recording. Now if I can get him to changer to ...)

I'm not getting paid or rewarded in any way for this message. All I
really have to do is thank Bill for sending me the gift, but I simply
could not permit the moment to pass without notifying the members of
this list.
--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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