Klarinet Archive - Posting 000066.txt from 2004/01

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] New edition of K. 622
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 20:14:07 -0500

Stephen C. Moore wrote:
> I was looking around on G. Henle's site. They are known for their Urtext
> editions of various works.
>
> Apparently they just released an edition of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto.
> It appears to include both the clarinet version and the basset clarinet
> version as well as the (I think its called) Winterthur fragment.
>
> Here is a link:
>
> http://www.henle.de/katalog/lookup.cfm?sub=Clarinet%20and%20piano&cid=9&lang=EN&country=US
>
> Thought i'd share that with the list...
>

With Henle, it will probably be a very fine edition, but it is not
possible for them to produce an Urtext of K. 622. The Winterthur
fragment is a wonderful thing. It is the manuscript (and it's very
sketchy) of the original version of the concerto for basset horn in G.
About 10 measures before the end of the manuscript, Mozart rethought the
solo instrument and suddenly the manuscript becomes a concerto for
clarinet in A. It then breaks off a few measures later.

It is called the Winterthur fragment because it resides in Winterthur,
Switzerland.

And while it is a genuine treasure for what it is, it cannot be spoken
of as if it were the equivalent of the clarinet concerto. It is not and
it will never be, though some of the articulations in the solo part are
very enlightening. There isn't much there, just a basset horn part and
a bass part as I remember. I have a facsimile of the autograph which
happens to be contained in the Barenreither volume for the clarinet
concerto, which is given in two versions, one for basset clarinet, the
other for a clarinet of traditional compass.

Very nice job by the editor, Ernst Hess, I believe. But it is not
offered by Barenreiter as if it were an urtext edition, because it is
not and cannot be. It's useful, thoughtful, and significant, but it was
made by consulting the first printed edition of K. 622 from 1803 (I
think), not by consultation with the true source, namely the manuscript
of the concerto, which has been lost since. ca 1800. As for the basset
clarinet version, every one of them (including Hess', Henle, Hacker,
etc.) are guesses as to where Mozart might have used the basset notes.
And it is safe to say that most of the guesses are very intelligent
ones. But who knows where and when Mozart descended to notes below
written low e in the original? No one.

What this means is that there is very little authority for any edition
to claim that it approaches Mozart's intentions.

That's very tragic, of course, but it is also quite true.

--
Dan Leeson
leeson0@-----.net

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