Klarinet Archive - Posting 000122.txt from 2004/05

From: "Thiel, Mark" <mark.thiel@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Questions on Bartok Concerto for Orchestra
Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 17:22:31 -0400

Walter wrote:
>A year or so ago, I took a lesson from a "very prominent player" here
in the=20
>Chicago area. We were doing "Capriccio Espagnol" and I wanted a little
help.

>We got to a certain passage, and this teacher said "Why the heck are
you=20
>playing this on the Bb? It's so much clearer and easily played on the
A". >This=20
>person has had a very distinguished career, playing in a major American
>orchestra=20
>for 30 years. I value his opinion, in fact, I paid to hear his opinion.

I skimmed that and thought "Huh, Walter's got that backwards doesn't he?
It's for A with bits that work better on Bb." But then I reread it
properly and saw that _another_ Russian's travelogue of _another_
southern European country was in question. I just did the C. Italien,
which calls for A's, and there are certainly some places that would be
easier on Bb. Also apropos of clarinet choice (but not at all relevant
to the subject line), In the Tchaikovsky Italien there's a section in
concert Bb that is written for the A clarinet, not in Db, but in C#.
I'm wondering if Tchaikovsky, his copyist, or perhaps some later editor
was writing out the clarinet parts, came to the section in Bb, said
"Concert Bb, Duh (or the Russian equivalent of "Duh"), we write for Bb
clarinet", came to the next section and saw an important clarinet solo
in just 2 bars and hardly any rests to the end of the piece, was about
to crumple up that piece of manuscript paper and rewrite in Db for the A
clarinet, when he realized "Aha", he can make things right by just
putting a whole bunch of sharps in the left margin. Does the fact that
I wonder such things indicate that I have way too many rests in other
parts of the piece?

>Personally, I would rather play a passage well and musically on the
"wrong"=20
>clarinet, than clobber it on the "right" clarinet.=20

I concur with that!

Mark Thiel

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