Klarinet Archive - Posting 000050.txt from 2004/05

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] DePeyer (was: who *IS* too European?)
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 16:49:29 -0400

In message <145.285faecc.2dc70228@-----.com>
RichChPlay@-----.com (David Niethamer) wrote:

> Like Matthew, I like DePeyer's recording of the Mozart Concerto, made with
> London Symphony(?) conducted by Peter Maag. Especially in the last
> movement, his playing imparts a dance-like feeling that is missing in most
> other recordings. Since the Basset Clarinet version of the concerto only
> became widely known to performers in the late 1960's, the fact that
> DePeyer's recording uses a regular A clarinet can't really be held against
> him, IMO. When I'm recommending recordings to students studying the Mozart
> Concerto, this is one of the recordings I suggest.
>
> DePeyer's recordings with the Melos Ensemble opened my eyes as a young
> American player to the possibility that 1.) there was more than one sound
> ("the one true sound") that could be gotten from a clarinet in playing
> classical music, and 2.) that blend and balance with string and other
> wind players was musically desirable and possible, if one was willing to
> be flexible about one's sound. For me it was a valuable lesson at an
> impressionable age.
>
> I heard DePeyer play several times at the Denver Clarinet Festival, and
> it was always musically instructive. Taking his career as a whole, to the
> extent that I know it, I have nothing but respect for him, as a musician
> and a clarinetist.

I avoid talking about my colleagues on this list, but in this case I would
like to agree with David.

I cannot speak for everything Gervase played -- on a couple of occasions I
heard him play quite badly -- but then, I have heard very many people play
badly on occasion, including myself.

For me he showed for the first time the full possibility of playing the
dramatic concertos -- Weber, Spohr, Crusell -- in an heroic manner. I also
agree with David about the Mozart Concerto recording.

In the 80's I was able to invite him to work with the London Sinfonietta (of
which I was then the principal clarinet), and had the privilege of
collaborating with him in performances and a recording of the Schoenberg
Suite, Op 29.

It would be a good idea to confine criticism to specifics, I think. For
example, it is possible for me to criticise Kell's recordings:

http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/2001/02/001020.txt

....without rubbishing Kell himself.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.

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