Klarinet Archive - Posting 000630.txt from 2002/06

From: Jeremy A Schiffer <schiffer@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Stoltzman and vibrato
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 11:27:55 -0400

On Tue, 18 Jun 2002, James Hobby wrote:

> Stoltzman, I can do without very well. I have never liked his sound. I
> have a personal aversion to vibrato in classical clarinet performance. I
> won't buy his recordings. He played in Nashville with the NSO a couple of
> years ago. A friend who teaches middle school band took his clarinet
> section to the concert, and said he regreted it; hoping that they wouldn't
> try to copy Stoltzman's sound.

Just to follow up on my previous point of not liking Richard Stoltzman, I
want to make clear that I have no aversion to vibrato in classical
clarinet music. In fact, I use it often. If you've listened to my mp3s of
the Dvorak Serenade (especially the third movement), you'd know that. :-)
This comes from having studied with a British teacher in high school
(John Denman), who was a big proponent of vibrato - though he warned me
that most Americans won't accept it, and to be careful, especially in
orchestra auditions, because it can count against you.

However, that doesn't mean that I think vibrato is always appropriate, or
always done well. I like the way Benny Goodman used it, but not the way
Stoltzman always does. To be honest, there's a lot of stuff that David
Krakauer does that I'm not thrilled to hear; it's just not very musical
(to my ears). That's not to say that I don't like his playing, but there
are aspects of his playing that I wouldn't strive to emulate. I much
prefer the more straight forward (less experimental?) playing of Margot
Leverett (which is a big reason why I recently started studying klezmer
with her).

Of course, I also happen to really like Evan Ziporyn's "This is Not a
Clarinet" so who am I to comment? :-)

-Jeremy Schiffer
1st Clarinet, Columbia Wind Ensemble
Clarinet, Columbia Klezmer Band
mp3s of both at http://www.columbia.edu/~schiffer/music.html

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