Klarinet Archive - Posting 000321.txt from 2001/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Music and instruments of different nationalities
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 08:15:56 -0500

On Wed, 7 Nov 2001 21:09:43 -0600, Gregory@-----.com said:

> As far as I know, we are the only orchestra that is observing this
> practice at the request of our music director, Daniel Barenboim who is
> also a strong believer in the difference between "national sounds"
> especially when applied to differing repertorie. He wants to preserve
> and even highlight these distinctions. It really is fascinating to
> hear it in practice.

> There are many differences in the two systems (that help us produce
> totally different sounds, even from the same player) that are too
> numerous to mention here. We've adapted to them on a gradual basis
> working up to playing recitals and chamber music on each - again
> depending on the repertorie. But in the orchestra, Larry Combs and I
> for instance will play La Mer on the first half on our French
> instruments and Wurlitzer (Oehler) instruments on let's say the Mahler
> 5th on the second half of the concert. Or on just the first half of a
> concert, a Beethoven Overture played on the Wurlitzer (Oehler) system
> instruments followed by Ravel's LaValse on the French
> Buffet-Klose'/LeBlanc instruments.

What do you do about bassoons?

The reason I ask is that when Barenboim took over the Orchestre de Paris
in the 1970s, he was very keen to get rid of the 'basson' -- or at
least, some of the players of the basson -- in that orchestra. At that
time, it seemed to him sensible to move over to the 'fagott', because
all the good playing he'd encountered was on that instrument.

But I recently went to direct a concert with the wind section of a
younger French orchestra, and found that the basson was nevertheless
still alive and well in France. They were playing on quite new Buffets.

> If any other clarinetists are doing this on a regular basis in a full
> time orchestra it would be interesting to hear about since I'm not
> aware of its practice elsewhere.

I believe the Philharmonia has used bassons for French music, but
the players are not all that keen, because they think it compromises
their technical excellence. That may be more in their perception than
what is evident to outsiders, of course.

We do all that in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and John
Eliot Gardiner's Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique does too;
though of course neither of them could be considered 'full-time'
orchestras. The 'period' French orchestras, like the Orchestre des
Champs Elysees, do it too.

The OAE plays Berlioz on French instruments (earlier, non-Boehm French
instruments, though), and more recently Mahler, Bruckner, Glinka and
Borodin (with, by the way, the absolutely stunning young Russian
conductor Vladimir Jurowski), on German instruments. For this last,
both I and the second clarinet used (Seggelke) copies of the
Ottensteiner instruments that belonged to Muehlfeld, which are still in
the museum at Meiningen.

What is said about playing on French and German instruments by listeners
is that although you might, depending on the circumstances, sometimes be
hard put to distinguish a few notes on a French clarinet from a few
notes on a German clarinet, nevertheless the cumulative effect of a
whole wind section simultaneously changing instruments from French to
German is quite another matter.

We haven't tried doing that actually *within a concert*, like Greg's
section has though, because although it's quite possible on the
clarinet, it's much more difficult for the oboes and bassoons. So we
just don't mix German and French music in programmes.

But it's getting more and more difficult to avoid it....

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
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