Klarinet Archive - Posting 000744.txt from 2002/04

From: "Forest E. Aten Jr." <forest_aten@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mozart Concerto Competition
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 13:48:25 -0400

A list of judges for the contest below....

The Competition Jury:
Marcello Abbado - President - Italia
Gerard Akoka, Conductor judge - France
Machiko Takahashi, flute judge - Japan
Arnaldo de Felice, oboe judge - Italy
Eric Schmid, clarinet judge Switzerland
Martin Wunderle, bassoon judge - Germany
George Alvarez, horn judge - Spain
Rudolph Angermueller, final trial added judge - Austria - International
Stiftung Mozarteum
Bin Ebisawa, final trial added judge - Japan - National Teahter of Tokyo

Quite a panel....

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Leeson" <leeson0@-----.net>
Subject: Re: [kl] Mozart Concerto Competition

> I thank Mark for having posted this most interesting web page about an
> Italian organization having a contest in which players of wind
> instruments will compete in determining who plays the Mozart wind
> concerti best.
>
> I want to limit my comments to the clarinet concerto portion of the
> competition. What I say may or may not be true for the clarinet (though
> I believe it to be), but I have no way of knowing if it is true or not
> for the other wind instruments.
>
> I have a basic problem with this specific competition, and a suggestion
> for anyone with the courage to enter it.
>
> My problem has to do with the judges. Since the competition is going to
> take place in Italy, I have to assume that the judges will be
> predominantly from the repertoire of Italian players. While there may
> be a German, an Austrian, a Frenchman, or an American or two, my guess
> is that the decision will be made predominantly by Italian clarinetists.
>
> And having said that, let me indicate why this particular national mix
> is troublesome. I offer the hypothesis that there are few Italian
> clarinet players now alive who have been able to make any contribution
> to the 18th century school of clarinet playing, either from the
> viewpoint of performance practice issues, or their interest in the use
> of the basset clarinet. They are unlikely to have read the literature
> on the performance of 18th century Viennese clarinet music either
> because it does not interest them or they cannot read the languages
> effectively. There is almost no Italian literature dealing with these
> critical issues and their views on the subject can be characterized as
> medieval.
>
> I do not suggest that Italian clarinetists are poor players. On the
> contrary. Their mechanical skills are legendary, but not in this arena.
> The playing of clarinet repertoire from ca. 1750 to ca. 1800 is almost
> devoid of Italian clarinetists making a significant contribution to
> issues of performance practice or the use of the basset clarinet.
> Therefore, there is a serious question if the Italian judges can measure
> candidates with anything approaching objectivity and a contemporary
> understanding of how they should be judging this contest.
>
> The days when a fine technician could get up and play K. 622 flawlessly
> and win a competition on that basis alone are over! Any player who does
> not know how to handle important performance practice issues of K. 622
> (for example, what is supposed to be done in an eingang; for example,
> the matter of improvisation; for example, the use of the basset notes;
> for example, the style issues associated with grace notes; for example,
> trills, mordents, apporgiature, etc.) is no longer really going to be a
> candidate for such a contest. It is not only how well you play, but how
> much you know about how to play this kind of music.
>
> Any player who goes to that contest without a basset clarinet is doing a
> very foolish thing, and it will simply show that they are not on top of
> how to play that work. If some player in Ohio performs the work with
> his local symphony and does so with a traditional clarinet, he or she
> cannot be faulted. But if that same player shows up at an international
> competition with the same attitude, then he or she shows something
> entirely different, namely that he or she does not know what is
> happening.
>
> For an international competition of this magnitude, you have to show a
> lot more than fast hands and a beautiful melifluous tone. You have to
> buy a basset clarinet and learn how to play it. Failure to do so, and,
> in my opinion, you are out of the contest.
>
> About 20 or 25 years ago, just such a contest was held in Strassbourg, I
> think. Great players showed up, some of them being in the forefront of
> clarinet playing in America and the world today. And one of the judges
> (whose name I will not give because he was such an idiot) rejected the
> three best ones because, as he said, "They don't really know how to play
> Mozart." What I think he meant was that only he knew how to play
> Mozart. Quelle schmuck!
>
> Well if an attendee gets an idiot like that today, s/he might survive if
> the judging contains a lot of people who know something. But if all the
> judges are from the orchestras of Italy that I have heard, 18th century
> style issues will go right over their heads like they were not part of
> the 20th century.
>
> Dan
>
>
> Mark Charette wrote:
> >
> > FYI:
> >
> > http://www.mozartitalia.org/uk/news/concorso_internazionale01.html
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> --
> ***************************
> ** Dan Leeson **
> ** leeson0@-----.net **
> ***************************
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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