Klarinet Archive - Posting 000551.txt from 2001/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Poulenc-Tony Pay
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 04:49:35 -0500

On Wed, 14 Nov 2001 23:08:36 -0600 (CST), Christopherhill@-----.net said:

> Have you ever recorded the Poulenc? I'd love to get a recording.

Yes, I have, not issued yet. (But it's not revelatory, or anything:-)

When I spent some time with Kari Krikku a few years ago, he told me that
in performance he sometimes played the 'snake-charmer' bit in the last
movement (it goes: eighth-note clarion E (tied over the bar), and then,
all eighths, DEFG#FED/twiddleEDEFG#FED/E, etc), fingering the G# as,
SpThxxo/xoo, ie a bit more than a quarter of a tone sharp.

I thought this was a splendid idea, and promptly stole it. It really
makes the clarinet players in the audience sit up. But it doesn't
appear on my recording, sadly; though it may on his if he's done one,
knowing him.

> BTW, how did you get the corrected manuscript?

Actually, 'manuscript' is an exaggeration, in the sense that I don't
have a complete score, but only the pages containing the controversial
passages.

When the 'intermediate' edition was published, and all the non-French
players who'd got to know the piece from the original 1963 edition
complained, Chester put the matter in the hands of Thea King and
Georgina Dobree, who examined all the evidence, including Poulenc's
latest version. Thea kindly sent me a photocopy from the relevant
pages of her photocopy of that.

The upshot was the reinstatement of what surely were Poulenc's final
thoughts on the matter, to the irritation of the French players who'd
got used to the pre-publication version, perhaps because one of them
had recorded it like that. It's an urban legend that "Poulenc was aware
of this problem"; but how he could have been, since he died before the
piece was published, I fail to see.

But what do I know: perhaps he and Mr Moennig discuss the matter
even as we speak;-)

I'm still waiting to find out what if anything is different about this
new edition, hopefully without having to go out and buy it.

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