Klarinet Archive - Posting 000495.txt from 2002/06

From: Bear Woodson <bearwoodson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Beethoven "Clarinet" Concerto!!!???
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 05:51:26 -0400

Hello, Klarinet List.

In the last 30 years I've owned and heard
many interpretations of the Mozart Clarinet
Concerto, but none that I owned were on CD.
(All my hundreds of LP's were lost years ago,
and my Mozart Clarinet cassettes are getting a
bit gritty.)

Therefore this last night I went looking to
get a copy of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto on
CD. I saw many famous ones, including the
Benny Goodman, Stolzman, and several others,
and settled on buying the David Shifrin, with
the Extended-Body Clarinet in A. I've heard it
on the radio years ago, but have never owned it
before.

But the thing that caught my attention was
the CD of the "Mozart and Beethoven Clarinet
Concertos" (!!!???), which is a transcription
of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Beethoven
himself had transcribed it to be his Sixth Piano
Concerto, and did an even further unique thing
by using the Timpani with the Piano in the Ca-
denza of the First Movement! (There used to
be a nice recording of it my Daniel Baremboim.)
But the Clarinet Concerto Version is fairly new,
and I'm sure that some of you would know a
lot about it. I find the idea intriguing, but I can't
afford to buy it right now.

I will listen to my David Shifrin Mozart
Clarinet Concerto CD tomorrow, but I already
know it goes to the Low Written C. This begs
the questions:

1) Just how high does the Clarinet's Written
Range go in the MODERN Version of the
Mozart Clarinet Concerto?

2) And is the Highest Note in Mozart's
ORIGINAL Version of his Clarinet Concerto,
the same as it is in the Modern Version? (Is it
higher now in the Modern Version?)

A few months ago you guys had some VERY
interesting things to say about the ORIGINAL
Model of Clarinet that Stadler used! Apparently
it had a Bulbous Bell, and was some kind of
unique combination of a Heckle Clarinet and
Basset Horn. I never fully understood the details,
but it sounds like an interesting instrument. But
I was left with the impression that neither instru-
ment can go as high as the Modern Clarinet,
ergo my curiosity.

(Besides I'm writing my series of Clarinet
works now, and would also like to know how
high it is safe to write. I'm assuming the Con-
cert E, 3 Ledger Lines above the Treble Clef as
a safe ceiling, but it wouldn't hurt to write in
Ossia Passages.)

It seems to me that I heard a recording on the
radio, years ago, (I think by Stolzman), where
the soloist re-wrote the endings of the First and
Third Movements, to allow for Cadenzas. He
then wrote his own Cadenzas, and hit the HIGH
Written C, 5 Ledger Lines above the Treble
Clef! I look forward to more educational com-
ments, and thank you all in advance.

Bear Woodson
Composer in Tucson, Arizona, USA
"Bear Woodson" <bearwoodson@-----.net>

---------------------------------------------------------------------