Klarinet Archive - Posting 000353.txt from 2004/01

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] George Silfies/Strauss' Happy Workshop
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 11:45:14 -0500

EClarinet@-----.com wrote:

> In a message dated 1/10/04 4:16:32 AM EST, Dan L writes:
>
> << I remember with great affection playing the Strauss Happy Workshop with
> George playing the first clarinet part, which is for a C instrument....We
> have a great picture taken of us following the performance, he holding the C,
> and me holding the basset horn. >>
>
> This is a great piece for clarinets, you guys! Check it out if you haven't
> heard it...I have a 2 cd set with all of Strauss' chamber music, and this is
> the best piece, in my opinion.
>
> My chamber winds group did 2 Strauss pieces last year--the Op. 7 Serenade,
> and the Suite in Bb, and when I asked the conductor about 'The Happy Workshop',
> he said it was too expensive to buy or rent (whichever it is). Oh well, maybe
> on his next trip to Las Vegas (he just got back from that den of iniquity on
> Friday), he might actually win some money and then he can buy it!
>
> Elise Curran
> Orlando

It is available only on rental from Boosey and Hawkes and it is
expensive. A group I know is planning on doing it in Santa Fe in early
February. Even a pocket score is no longer available.

The other work that Strauss wrote at the same time as the Happy Workshop
is subtitled "The Invalid's Workshop." Exquisite piece but mostly for
the players. It's a tough piece to sit through.

The Happy Workshop is dedicated "To Mozart at the end of a thankful
life" and contains an entire movement (the last) that is entirely built
on the final movement of the Gran Partitta. It is a genuine compliment
to that work with which Strauss was very familiar. But Happy Workshop
was composed in two stages. First he wrote what is now the last
movement and he did so for a Mozart festival that was planned for Munich
in 1941, but did not take place because of the war. So he put the piece
away and at the very end of his life wrote the first four movements,
stuck the one from 1941 at the back, and thus, The Happy Workshop. Both
this work and the Invalid's workshop were not published until after
Strauss' death and thus bear the sequence listing of Opus Posthumous.

Your horn section should be the ones who worry if you perform it. They
have the preponderance of the difficult work.

Speak to your conductor about the 250th commemorative event of Mozart's
birthday in 2006. That's the time to do the work and he'll have almost
two years to get the rental money. Meanwhile, go to a BIG university
library somewhere, get the complete Strauss edition, and copy the score.
You cannot buy that score anywhere, so do it now.

One final thing. It calls for 1 C clarinet, 2 B-flat clarinets, 1
basset horn, and 1 bass clarinet. Don't even think about trying the
work with subsitute instruments. I'd have to put out a onctract on you
and the conductor should you not heed my admonition.

Dan

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

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