Klarinet Archive - Posting 000392.txt from 2004/01

From: "Keith" <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Strauss' Happy Workshop
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 17:32:21 -0500

I'm organising the Santa Fe workshop/performance that Dan mentioned. =
It's
correct that the study score for the Happy Workshop has recently gone =
out of
print, and the conductor's score has been unavailable for a long time.
Boosey & Hawkes will sell you a very nice photocopy score, but it costs
about $200.

Dan kindly donated his study score and parts to the ICA library in =
Maryland,
and ICA members can borrow them for - wait for it - $12. However, since =
the
parts are copies, they will not do this if you are going to perform from
them. However again, the rental from Boosey and Hawkes was not rapacious =
-
$100 for a non-profit organisation. The score was a very nice photocopy =
but
the parts are tatty in the extreme. So we borrowed the ICA parts for a =
long
time for people to practise, and have rented for a short time to be =
legal
for performance. Even so, Boosey's let us have them for 2 months. So =
Elise,
have another go at the mean old conductor! I'll be returning the sets in
mid-February.

Gary, if you ever locate a score at a non-rapacious price, let me know!

I absolutely agree that the parts must be played on the right clarinets. =
I
will take Dan's contract if you don't. And even so they are hard enough; =
I'm
sweating on the basset horn part (but Forest Aten, who is coming, can do =
the
hard bits for me :-)). It will need a lot of work to ut together, but is
very rewarding.

The Invalid Workshop needs a bass clarinet in A for at least part of it. =
The
study score is still in print.

Anyone able to get to Santa Fe on Sunday evening Feb 15 to hear us is
welcome! Email me for details.

Keith Bowen
Director, Kammermusik Workshops

www.kammermusikworkshops.org

> Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 08:41:59 -0800
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
> Subject: Re: [kl] George Silfies/Strauss' Happy Workshop
> Message-ID: <4002CE57.5090405@-----.net>
>=20
> EClarinet@-----.com wrote:
>=20
> > In a message dated 1/10/04 4:16:32 AM EST, Dan L writes:
> >=20
> > << I remember with great affection playing the Strauss=20
> Happy Workshop with=20
> > George playing the first clarinet part, which is for a C=20
> instrument....We=20
> > have a great picture taken of us following the performance,=20
> he holding the C,=20
> > and me holding the basset horn. >>
> >=20
> > This is a great piece for clarinets, you guys! Check it=20
> out if you haven't=20
> > heard it...I have a 2 cd set with all of Strauss' chamber=20
> music, and this is=20
> > the best piece, in my opinion. =20
> >=20
> > My chamber winds group did 2 Strauss pieces last year--the=20
> Op. 7 Serenade,=20
> > and the Suite in Bb, and when I asked the conductor about=20
> 'The Happy Workshop',=20
> > he said it was too expensive to buy or rent (whichever it=20
> is). Oh well, maybe=20
> > on his next trip to Las Vegas (he just got back from that=20
> den of iniquity on=20
> > Friday), he might actually win some money and then he can buy it!
> >=20
> > Elise Curran
> > Orlando
>=20
> It is available only on rental from Boosey and Hawkes and it is=20
> expensive. A group I know is planning on doing it in Santa=20
> Fe in early=20
> February. Even a pocket score is no longer available.
>=20
> The other work that Strauss wrote at the same time as the=20
> Happy Workshop=20
> is subtitled "The Invalid's Workshop." Exquisite piece but=20
> mostly for=20
> the players. It's a tough piece to sit through.
>=20
> The Happy Workshop is dedicated "To Mozart at the end of a thankful=20
> life" and contains an entire movement (the last) that is=20
> entirely built=20
> on the final movement of the Gran Partitta. It is a genuine=20
> compliment=20
> to that work with which Strauss was very familiar. But Happy=20
> Workshop=20
> was composed in two stages. First he wrote what is now the last=20
> movement and he did so for a Mozart festival that was planned=20
> for Munich=20
> in 1941, but did not take place because of the war. So he=20
> put the piece=20
> away and at the very end of his life wrote the first four movements,=20
> stuck the one from 1941 at the back, and thus, The Happy=20
> Workshop. Both=20
> this work and the Invalid's workshop were not published until after=20
> Strauss' death and thus bear the sequence listing of Opus Posthumous.
>=20
> Your horn section should be the ones who worry if you perform=20
> it. They=20
> have the preponderance of the difficult work.
>=20
> Speak to your conductor about the 250th commemorative event=20
> of Mozart's=20
> birthday in 2006. That's the time to do the work and he'll=20
> have almost=20
> two years to get the rental money. Meanwhile, go to a BIG university=20
> library somewhere, get the complete Strauss edition, and copy=20
> the score.=20
> You cannot buy that score anywhere, so do it now.
>=20
> One final thing. It calls for 1 C clarinet, 2 B-flat clarinets, 1=20
> basset horn, and 1 bass clarinet. Don't even think about trying the=20
> work with subsitute instruments. I'd have to put out a=20
> onctract on you=20
> and the conductor should you not heed my admonition.
>=20
> Dan
>=20
> --=20
> Dan Leeson
> leeson0@-----.net
>=20

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